Emerald Spark
by Cyclone
Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.
1. Prologue

Title: Emerald Spark (0/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

It was the night of November 1st, 1997, and Xander walked down the darkened street, fingering the ring he wore on his right hand. He wasn't surprised by the way Buffy had exploded when he told them about the loophole in Angel's curse. It hurt, but it didn't surprise him.

There were so many things he hadn't told them, but at the top of the list was what he'd tried to do here, when he realized where and when he was.

Last night -- Halloween night -- Xander had dressed as a Green Lantern. Instead of turning into a random Green Lantern or Hal Jordan or Kyle Rayner, he had turned into a future version of himself, one that had been stranded in a futuristic DC universe and became that time's Green Lantern of Sector 2814.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out where and when he was when the spell started, and he had come up with a wild idea. He only hoped it worked. He thought it did, but seeing as how he had passed out almost immediately after, he wasn't sure. The first part had been easy: He had used his power ring to duplicate itself. It was one of the standard GLC power ring's many abilities.

He fingered the ring again. That had obviously worked. When he had regained consciousness, the ring he had been wearing when the spell started -- the first power ring -- had reverted to the cheap plastic ring he'd bought from Ethan's, but the created ring had remained.

The second part of his plan was to call his power battery to him. He'd nearly given himself an aneurysm trying to pull it to him across space, time, and the multiverse -- or perhaps simply creating it; he couldn't be sure -- but he vaguely remembered seeing it appear and using the new ring to hide it. The strain of what he had tried had apparently been too much for Ethan's spell to handle, because it appeared to have ended right around the time he passed out.

And that was why he was here.

He raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. The ring began to glow as he willed it to work. On the street, the green, lantern-shaped power battery shimmered into a visibility and floated to his left hand.

"Hot damn," he whispered in awe. "It actually worked."

He cleared his throat and opened his mouth, but before any words left his mouth, he stopped and frowned. Sure, he had his own oath, but that didn't seem appropriate right here, right now. Besides, it was a private oath to himself, one he would never allow anyone else to hear if he could help it. As he began to charge the ring, he spoke, his voice growing stronger and more confident with each word:

"In brightest day, in blackest night,  
No evil shall escape my sight.  
Let all who worship evil's might  
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

He felt the familiar uniform settle around him as the ring flashed with power. It was only one ring. Only one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Or perhaps, simply the most powerful weapon in the universe. Singular and unique in a world without the Corps.

It was a beginning. An emerald dawn.

_No,_ he thought. _More of an emerald spark. One little light, all alone, in the night._

With that thought on his mind, he sent a mental command to the ring and shot toward the heavens, enveloped in green energy.

* * *

"Oh, Spiiike!" Drusilla's voice keened through the factory plaintively.

"What is it, Dru?" Spike hurried to his lover's side.

"It's coming," she said, her voice hushed with excitement and fear. "The emerald flame is coming, and it will burn us all."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

You asked for it; you got it.

As if Green Lantern Xander or Future Knowledge Xander wasn't enough...

One of three special Halloween posts.


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Emerald Spark (1/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

If the sky were clear and someone were to point a telescope in just the right direction, that person would have been able to see a glowing green sphere -- about eight feet in diameter -- hovering high above the North American continent. Within the sphere hovered a young man in green and black with a symbol that would be familiar to most of Western culture splashed across his chest.

Xander Harris, Green Lantern of this universe, watched the world turning beneath him.

It felt... wonderful to be up here. It brought back memories. He and Marina used to come up to the edge of the atmosphere all the time back...

Back then.

The power ring drew on his memories, and before he knew it, she was hovering in front of him, a playful smile on her face. Or, more accurately, a ring construct of her was hovering in front of him. His heart ached at the sight, and he reached a hand up toward her cheek...

He abruptly shook it off and willfully banished the construct.

Marina was gone, lost in some alternate timeline. Considering that he was here by virtue of the Halloween spell, it was likely that, if she had ever even existed, if he had ever actually met her, the him that had met her was still with her. He was just the sucker cursed with the memories of a happy other him.

Besides, he had come up here for a reason, and it wouldn't do to get distracted.

"Ring, find Kakistos."

* * *

The door exploded inward, and the reactions from the vampires within the warehouse was immediate. Kakistos calmly rose to his feet as his minions abandoned whatever they were doing to face whatever was coming.

Beside Kakistos, Mr. Trick racked the action of a 9mm Uzi... and stared, his jaw dropping in disbelief when the dust cleared. Standing in the doorway was a man in the unmistakeable uniform of the Green Lantern Corps.

"In brightest day..." the man began as the first wave of vampires launched themselves at him. The ring on his hand glowed, and the light extended to envelope him in a suit of green plate mail and form what was pretty obviously some sort of lightsaber.

"...in blackest night..." he continued, lashing out and decapitating the surrounding vampires with frightening ease. Suddenly, he stopped, and the armor and lightsaber vanished. The green light flashed out and suddenly pinned each of the minions around the neck, looking like green floating guillotines. "No evil shall escape my sight."

Schlunk!

The captured vampires crumbled to dust, and the man strode towards the two head vampires. "Let all who worship evil's might," he intoned, blasting Kakistos against the wall behind him, "beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

Another beam of green light lanced out and neatly decapitated Kakistos. The man turned to look at Mr. Trick. Trick stared back at him, still not quite believing what he was seeing. Suddenly, he snapped the Uzi up and opened fire, not really expecting it to work. A green energy barrier popped up and blocked the bullets easily, which was pretty much what Trick had expected.

"Damn me," he said, dropping the Uzi in resignation. "I'm gonna get killed by a comic book character."

The intruder nodded, "Yup."

Schlunk!

Xander surveyed the room curiously. It was odd. He remembered how much trouble Kakistos had caused them last time. Two Slayers, and he had nearly killed them both; Trick hadn't been much easier. Just now, though, he had dusted both of them and a couple dozen minions without even breaking a sweat. It really put into perspective just how powerful the power ring really was. Here, it definitely deserved the title of "most powerful weapon in the universe."

_Okay,_ he thought. _That's one threat dealt with._

There were others, of course, but many of them were going to be more complicated to deal with than Kakistos and Trick. He didn't even know where Acathla was buried, and his attempts to find him with the power ring had proven fruitless. The ring kept registering too much interference in Sunnydale... probably the hellmouth. Finding the Judge parts hadn't been a problem, but they were all buried in places he couldn't get to without drawing way too much attention.

Definitely not something he was going to risk just yet. Which was also why he was wary about taking on the Mayor or investigating the Initiative right now. As for Glory...

_Damn it,_ he thought sourly. _Why can't I remember who her damn host was?_

Still, he was already in Boston, so maybe he should...

_Riiight,_ he thought, as reality smacked him in the face. _Like she's gonna trust some comic book geek in green and black pajamas. C'mon, there's gotta be some way I can ease her into it... hmm..._

He smiled as an idea began to form. It took a moment to create what he needed and instruct it, but once he was done, he was satisfied as he watched his little messenger fly off. He'd come back in a day, and that should have been plenty enough to get her used to the weird. In the meantime...

"Ring, find Tara Maclay."

* * *

"Ow!"

Faith Lehane grabbed the back of her head and spun, glaring down the alleyway, but there was no one there. Whoever had thrown... whatever it was... at her was gone.

She felt the offending object between her hand and her head and rolled it in her hand as she brought it around, trying to ascertain what it was.

"A ring?"

* * *

There were three people there, two men and a woman.

"Damn it, woman!" the older man roared at the woman. "I know you've been teachin' her. Don't deny it! It stops! Right now!"

His fist hurtled toward her face... only to break against an impervious glowing green barrier.

"What is this? More of your witchcraft?" he demanded.

"No," came another voice from the side. A male voice. "Just an interstellar cop responding to a domestic disturbance." They all turned, and the new arrival said calmly, his voice deadly serious, "Do not make me resort to police brutality." He paused, then recanted, "On second thought, please, make me."

"Green Lantern?" Donny Maclay sputtered in stunned recognition from behind his father.

"You read comic books?" the Green Lantern blurted out in surprise. He frowned and shot him another odd look, "You can read?"

"Don't talk about my boy that way!"

"Or you'll what?" Green Lantern snorted. He looked back at Donny, "You know the name. Do you know the oath?"

Donny gulped and nodded, "Uh, yeah."

"Recite it for me."

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let all who worship evil's might beware my power, Green Lantern's light."

"Very good," Green Lantern said. "Here's a newsflash: Witchcraft isn't evil, and she's not demonic. I should know. I've fought real demons before." He stepped towards them menacingly. "Beware."

Donny bolted, and his father whirled toward him, "Come back here, you coward!" He spun back toward Green Lantern and cocked a fist back, "Fine. I'll take care of you mys-OOG!"

WHAM!

The green boxing glove had smacked him right in the belly and sent him flying.

"Thank you," came a soft voice from behind him.

He turned and smiled, "Just doing my job, ma'am. That's not quite why I'm here, though." He took in her appearance -- wavy blonde hair, hazel eyes, and an assortment of other familiar features that cinched what he'd concluded from the presence of the two Maclay men -- and asked tentatively, "Ah, would you happen to be related to Tara Maclay?"

"Yes," the woman's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I'm her mother, Rebecca."

Xander nodded, "Well, ma'am, I'm looking to recruit a good witch or two to help me keep a lid on the hellmouth. Your daughter's name came up." He gave her his patented Xander smile, "So, you interested?"

* * *

Faith could get used to this. Flying... was fun. It was one of many things she had come to appreciate since the ring had smacked her in the head at around this time last night. She still didn't know what to make of there being a real Green Lantern power ring -- she may never have had the opportunity to read comics, but she had seen them before -- but at the moment, she didn't care. Flying hundreds of feet in the air was simply far too exhilirating -- almost intoxicating -- to let anything ruin her mood.

"Faith Lehane."

She froze and looked around in surprise for a moment, then looked up and saw him. She paled. It was Green Lantern. A real one.

"H-hey," she said. "I-I didn't know, okay. I found it. I dunno what happ-"

"Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps," Xander interrupted. "I knew the ring would find someone worthy." It was technically the truth: He knew she was worthy -- or would be, someday -- and he'd sent the duplicate ring to hunt her down specifically.

She stared at him, "Me? B-but..." That was when her tough girl attitude reasserted itself. "Wicked," she drawled. "So what now, big guy?"

Xander smiled.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Yeah, I know I've used the oath a little too frequently, but it just fit the scenes too well to leave it out. Oh, at Anime Ronin's suggestion, Tara's mother Rebecca looks like Susie Shinner.


	3. Chapter 2

Title: Emerald Spark (2/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"So, when do I get to meet the rest of the Corps?" Faith asked. Currently, they were flying to Sunnydale, courtesy of Green Lantern Airlines. Faith's power ring had used up its charge less than an hour after Xander had found her, so his ring was bringing them there.

"I am the rest of the Corps," Xander snorted. "So far, it's just the two of us, another couple of people I've got my eye on, and one power battery between us all."

"What?" she sputtered, her face paling. "A-and you... it picked me?" Her voice rose about two octaves as her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"Yeah," Xander replied quietly. "Just us."

"What happened?"

He shrugged, "It's a long story, poozer. I'll tell you when we get there. Right now, though... do you believe in vampires?"

* * *

"Faith, this is Rebecca Maclay-" Xander began.

"Baxter."

Xander blinked, "Huh?"

"I'd rather go by my maiden name now," the older woman said. She extended a hand toward Faith, "I'm Rebecca Baxter."

"Yo," Faith shook her hand.

"Oh," Xander nodded. "Well, Tara, Ms. Baxter, this is Faith Lehane, the newest -- by which I mean, the only other -- Green Lantern."

"A pleasure to meet you," Rebecca said.

"Um, h-hi," Tara waved shyly.

Xander bowed and gestured toward Tara with an exaggerated flourish, "And this is the adorably cute Tara Baxter."

Faith cocked an eyebrow as Tara's faced reddened. Rebecca watched the interplay with... interest. Xander remained oblivious.

* * *

"No shit?" Faith asked. "The future? Seriously?"

Xander nodded. "I've got memories up until around oh-eight. That's when I got tossed into the wrong universe. I was in Africa, trying to stop an apocalyptic ritual, and I got shifted to a version of the DC universe."

"But how did you get from there to here?" Rebecca asked.

"Halloween," Xander shrugged. "A chaos worshipper cast a spell that turned everyone into their costumes. I dressed as a Green Lantern and wound up turning into myself. Since I knew the power ring would revert when the spell ended, I used it to create a second one and call my power battery to me. That broke the spell..." his voice dropped "...and damn near me..." he cleared his throat and continued, "...and here we are now."

He hadn't told them everything. For example, he'd left out little details like Faith's stint on the dark side and the fact that Tara and Rebecca were both very, very dead; he'd also taken care to avoid mentioning the various... relationships... that had developed -- or would develop... whatever -- on ye merry olde hellmouth. All he'd done was paint some pretty broad strokes -- apocalypse this, armageddon that -- and when they'd met each other.

* * *

"Xander?"

Xander had used up his road trip fund to put a down payment on the house he'd set up Faith and the Mac- the Baxters in. He had some plans to come up with more funding, but for now, that was all he needed. Tara and Faith had headed to bed, and Xander was on his way out.

He turned, "Yeah, Ms. B?"

"I died in the future you remembered, didn't I?"

"Um, what makes you say that?" he asked.

"You didn't recognize me when you... intervened," she said quietly. "So you and I never met in the past timeline, and the only way that would happen after you've known Tara as long as you said you did is if I was dead."

Xander looked away.

"How did I die?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Tara never said. Or at least not to me. All I know is that you died when she was seventeen."

"She turned seventeen two weeks ago."

"I know," he said quietly.

Rebecca nodded thoughtfully. "I can't imagine that the rest of the family would just let her stay here," she said, finally. "Why didn't they come for her?"

Xander turned and flashed her a feral grin, "Oh, they did. We made sure they left without her. And hey, I was dating an ex-demon, we had a vampire on the team, and Buffy's the Slayer. Even if she... you... were demons..." he trailed off and shrugged. "Not a big deal for us."

"Well, you go get some sleep, young man. It's a school night, after all."

Xander nodded and walked off without a word, stopping only slightly for a second when he realized that she'd just ordered him to bed, and he was following said order. He'd only done that with Joyce before.

This... was going to be strange.

* * *

"C'mon, Buffy. You know Xander can't keep up a lie for long," Willow said encouragingly. _I just hope he really was lying, _she added silently. _If not..._ she glanced at Buffy worriedly.

If Xander had been telling the truth, that the gypsy curse binding Angel's soul would be broken if he had a moment of happiness... well, it made a scary sort of sense to Willow. What would be the point of cursing him if he could be happy with it? But why wouldn't they have told him about it? It was also kind of odd that the future Xander remembered had him losing his soul after sleeping with Buffy. If he really loved her, why didn't the clause go off until then?

It was vaguely creepy, and the more Willow thought about it, the more it disturbed her.

All these musings were suddenly and violently shoved into a tiny corner of her mind, and a green haze tinted her vision when she saw Xander arriving.

Flanked by two very beautiful girls.

Xander was wearing a pair of khaki pants, along with an off-white button-up shirt. Over the shirt, he wore a brown leather vest, and a pair of brand-new, rugged-looking, leather hiking boots and a fedora completed the image. On his left stood a raven-haired girl whose tight halter top, equally tight leather shorts, and swaying walk positively screamed "bad girl." On his right stood a mousy-looking blonde who was wearing a knee-length cotton skirt and a sweater. The two were as different as night and day.

Xander's gaze swept across the compound, and he shot Willow a warm smile that snapped her out of her jealous haze, but the smile instantly faded as soon as his gaze met Buffy's. His face hardened like stone, and he pointedly looked away from Buffy and continued toward the school's front doors.

"Buffy, I don't think he was lying."

Buffy turned and stared at her, "You mean you believe him now?"

"Did you see the look on his face?" Willow asked. "He's furious."

"That's because I saw through his stupid trick," Buffy retorted, turning and heading toward the school. "C'mon, we'll be late."

Willow hurried after, eyeing Buffy uneasily. She shook it off.

_Who are those two girls that were with him?_ Willow wondered.

* * *

"tHE SEED OF DOUBT HAS GROWN WELL."

"gOOD. tHEN HIS MEDDLING CAN BE COMPENSATED FOR."

* * *

"It would be... unfortunate if something like what happened to the late Principal Flutie were to happen again," Xander said coolly. He flashed Snyder a feral grin and pulsed some of his ring's power to make his eyes flash green, "After all, this is a dangerous town. All sorts of gangs prowling around, high on PCP. It would be wise of you to not do anything... risky."

"You... you wouldn't dare," Snyder hissed.

"Me?" Xander feigned surprise. "Dare what? I'm just reminding you of how dangerous Sunnydale can be. After all, I wouldn't want anything to... happen to my... favorite principal, now, would I?" His voice was positively dripping with sarcasm. With that, he left the principal's office and headed out to meet Faith and Tara.

_Uh, oh,_ he thought when he saw Tara cornered by the Cordettes. _Not good._ His gaze flicked over to where he saw further movement. It was Faith, and she was making a beeline toward Tara and the Cordettes. _Even worse,_ he thought. He hurried and overtook Faith, waving her back.

Cordelia Chase was not an idiot. Sure, she was self-centered and occasionally had her priorities a little out of whack when the world was on the line, but all in all, she was not an idiot. Which was why she was smart enough to back off on the new girl when she saw Xander storming toward them like a god of vengeance. Her hand twitched in a subtle signal, and her loyal sheep followed her lead.

Harmony Kendall, on the other hand, was an idiot. She was also self-centered, but where Cordelia occasionally had her priorities a little out of whack, Harmony usually had her priorities a little out of whack. Which was why she was both ambitious enough and stupid enough to see Cordy's backing down as an opportunity, rather than a warning.

"...hope we've made ourselves clear, you white trash fashion disaster."

"Now, now, Harmony," Xander stepped in. "Stop being jealous."

Harmony blinked for a long moment as she processed that.

"'Jealous'?" she shrieked. "Of her? Dream on, Harris!"

"Well," Xander shrugged, "I'm just calling it as I see it. After all, unlike some people I could name, she doesn't need twenty layers of make-up, a hundred-dollar pair of shoes, and a boob job to be presentable." He put an arm around Tara's shoulders and gave a friendly squeeze, "Personally, I prefer a more natural beauty." After a long pause, he added, "After all, Harmony, do you honestly think you could make this look anywhere near as good?"

Satisfied with the impact his verbal assault had made -- Harmony was now doing a wonderful impression of a goldfish -- Xander turned and left, a furiously blushing Tara in tow.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

There will be more crossovers as this continues. Just a warning.


	4. Chapter 3

Title: Emerald Spark (3/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"Willow, I told you," Xander said calmly. "I've seen the future. We met them in the future. I told you about them before Buffy started ranting at me, remember?"

"Yeah," Willow nodded. She had managed to corner Xander and had asked him just who the two new girls were, since it was pretty obvious that they knew Xander. "But what are they doing here?"

"Faith was on the streets, and Tara's dad is worse than mine and Mom put together," Xander shrugged. "You know me. You really think I could leave them like that?"

"So, you went to Boston and Alabama and brought them here?"

"Yeah."

"Over one weekend?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow skeptically.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing," Xander intoned.

Up went the other eyebrow.

"Red eye flights and a lot of fast talk?" he offered.

Willow scowled.

"Behold, the power of the internet," Xander said, nodding sagely.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry, Will," Xander patted her on the head. "That joke'll make more sense when you're older." She flushed at the implication. By the time she realized he meant "sometime in the future," he was gone.

"Hey!"

* * *

Xander was having a good day. The birds were out, the sun was shining, the world was not currently facing an apocalypse...

...and he had his Willow back.

His Willow. The adorably shy redhead he grew up with, oh so long ago. Not the badass superwitch he barely recognized.

It was like having Jean Grey back with no Phoenix.

He was happy.

So, naturally, something had to give the day a sour note. That something took the form of a naggingly familiar face, which soon turned and headed away from the school, presumably toward home. It was only vaguely familiar, and he frowned, trying to place the face. The guy wasn't in his recent memory, so that left his future memory. Plus, that meant the guy was a new student.

So, who transferred to Sunnydale High soon after Hellowe-...?

"Shit," he muttered. "Ford."

"How do you know Ford?"

"Bwah!" Xander jumped and whirled on Willow. "Don't do that!" he scolded. "I got enough of that from Batman," he added under his breath.

"Xander," Willow said warningly. "What is it? What's wrong with Ford?"

He glanced back at where Ford had been. "Absolutely nothing, Will," he said quietly. "Except... watch your back around him. I'm steering clear of this disaster unless absolutely necessary."

"You know something, don't you?"

"Yep."

"What?"

"He plans on feeding Buffy and a whole bunch of morons to Sp- some vampire in order to get vamped, since he's terminally ill. It'll work out, though."

Behind him, Willow frowned, her forehead crinkling in confusion, "But... you said he was terminally ill."

"Yeah."

"Then how is it going to work out?"

Xander just shrugged and walked off, but as soon as he was out of earshot, he muttered quietly, "I never said it would work out for him."

* * *

Xander considered knocking. It was about half an hour past sunset, and he knew Angel was home -- at this range, even the hellmouth's interference wasn't enough to keeping him from getting that much information -- but he was debating the best approach.

Then he remembered where he'd seen Angel on this night the last go-round: at the Bronze, hoping to find Buffy.

Instead of, say, patrolling.

_I think I'll knock,_ he thought with a grin. _Real loud._

The force construct battering ram was inches away from the door when he got a better idea. It was high time Angel got a taste of his own medicine. With that decision made, he turned and left.

* * *

Angel frowned and sniffed. There was someone in his apartment. It smelled vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Angel."

He spun and swung at the source of the voice... and found himself flying toward the wall, victim of a simple judo flip.

"See?" the intruder said. "That's the sorta reaction sneaking up on people gets you."

Angel looked up, "Harris?"

Xander nodded as Angel picked himself back up. He didn't offer to help... but then, Angel wouldn't have accepted any help from him either.

"What are you doing here?" the vampire asked...

WHAM!

...and found himself staggering back into the wall from a powerful right cross.

"What was that for?!" he demanded, blinking his eyes clear.

"For not telling me about my ex-girlfriend when she fell into a coma and died," Xander said calmly. "I didn't get a chance to hit you for it, last time around."

"Gee, thanks," Angel muttered. "So what are you really here for?"

"To see if you've come to your senses about the curse loophole."

"I've thought about that, Xander," Angel said, "but the part that isn't making sense is the part where the gypsies didn't tell me about it." He looked up, "I think you're lying."

"Damn it, Angel," Xander hissed, "I know you're smarter than this. Maybe not much smarter, but smarter. Use your vampy senses, you know they're good enough to tell you if I'm lying or not."

* * *

"hE DOES NOT ACCEPT THE BOY'S WORDS."

"gOOD."

* * *

"Fine," Xander said, throwing his hands up in surrender, "but if you lose your soul, Deadboy, I'm going to dust you."

Angel thought about that for a moment, then asked, "Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

* * *

"sHIT."

* * *

"Hello, Ms. B," Xander smiled. "Can I talk to Faith?"

"Certainly, Xander," she said with a nod, stepping back and allowing him to enter. He did so without prompting and waved to Tara, who shyly ducked her head and waved back.

He then made his way to Faith's door and knocked. The response was a muffled, "...go'way..."

"C'mon, Faith," he said, knocking again. "We've gotta get moving."

Finally, the door opened, and Xander blinked in surprise at the disheveled-looking Faith on the other side.

"Moving where?" she asked sourly.

Xander smiled, "Time for you to earn your keep."

Faith blinked at him blearily for a moment -- an image that Xander filed away for future amusement; he had never seen Faith look so out of sorts before, thanks probably to her Slayerness last time around -- and as comprehension dawned on her, she stepped back.

Xander blinked and belatedly realized how what he had said sounded. "Not like that," he said. "Trust me. You'll like it."

* * *

"Way cool," Faith murmured, her head whipping back and forth as she tried to look everywhere at once.

"Yeah," Xander smiled nostalgically. "Enjoy the view, Faith. I've got an asteroid to mine." He willed his ring to carry him off, leaving her in the force field generated by her own ring.

"Hey, wait!"

He paused and turned to look back at her, "What?" He was surprised to see naked fear on her face. After a moment, it suddenly occurred to him that Faith, for all her tough talk and street smarts, was still a teenaged girl. Even if she was the Slayer he remembered -- which she wasn't, a fact he kept forgetting -- being out in space would have been... disorienting, to say the least.

In other words, she was scared out of her wits, and almost as afraid to show it.

"C'mon," he said, waving her forward. "Use the ring and come here so I can show you what to do."

She blinked at him, then nodded, a goofy grin spreading across her face.

He filed that expression away too. The only time he usually saw Faith happy the last time around was when she was beating the crap out of something. Not that he disagreed -- beating the crap out of things was fun and great stress relief -- but the old Faith was more jaded, less prone to enjoying the moment without looking for the strings.

Her life on the streets had hardened her, but not nearly as much as the death of her first Watcher... or what had happened with Ms. Post.

_Which reminds me,_ he added mentally. _That's another thing I've got to watch out for._

* * *

"That doesn't look like much," Faith said, eyeing the baseball-sized hunk of metal dubiously.

"It's enough," Xander assured her, hefting the metallic rock in his left hand. "Thirty-five troy pounds of pure platinum. This chunk here is worth nearly half a million dollars, a lot less on the black market... which is where we're going to have to unload this if we want to avoid awkward questions."

"Whoa," she murmured respectfully. She grinned, "Come to mama."

"Now, now, Faith," Xander mock scolded. "This is going toward buying that house you're staying in now."

"Oh, right," she pouted. "Where the hell did you learn all that anyway?"

"About the platinum?," he shrugged. "Africa. Spent a few years there. Barter works, and there were quite a few times we killed a demon and found ourselves with its hoard of trinkets and precious metals and stuff."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

A special Christmas update. Happy Christmahanakwanzaka!


	5. Chapter 4

Title: Emerald Spark (4/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Buffy stared at the envelope in her hands, debating whether or not to open it. Xander had given it to her and told her not to open it until tomorrow, that however little she trusted him now, she would outright hate him if she opened it before then. Throw in the bombshell that Ford had dropped on her last night -- that he knew that she was the Slayer -- and she was an emotional mess.

* * *

"iS IT WORTH THE RISK?"

"hE IS WORTHLESS TO US IF THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN."

"sO WE ARE AGREED? wE WILL INTERVENE?"

"yES."

"yOU'RE BOTH FOOLS. tHIS WILL NEVER WORK."

"sILENCE, Oma. tHIS DOES NOT CONCERN YOU."

"dOESN'T IT? aT LEAST WHEN i MEDDLE, i HELP THEM."

* * *

Buffy's lips tightened in firm resolve, and she tore open the envelope. She pulled out its contents and found herself holding... another envelope. This one had Xander's handwriting -- cleaned up a lot from what it had been just a week ago -- on it.

"Buffy," it said, "I told you not to open the envelope. I'm serious, Buff. You'll hate me if you open it now. If our friendship ever meant anything to you, please don't open this yet."

There was a space.

"P.S.: If you're reading this Wednesday morning, then... uh... sorry!" There was a smiley face scrawled at the end there, and she couldn't help but smile and shake her head. She tucked the envelope in her diary.

She still had to go meet Ford.

* * *

"dOH!"

"tOLD YOU."

* * *

"You knew!" Buffy shrieked as he entered the library. Xander's eyes widened a split-second before the almost full-force Slayer punch connected with his jaw. He barely managed to twist and fall back with the impact, turning what would have been a shattered jaw into a dislocated one.

As he worked his jaw back into place, he looked up and nodded. "Yeah, Buff," he said, after having fixed his jaw. "I knew. But what could I have done to change it?"

"You could have told me!" she snarled.

"Would you have believed me?" he asked reasonably. "And even if you did, what could you have done?"

"Damn you!" she snarled and took an aggressive step toward him, arms rising to grab him. However, she was blocked when someone stepped between them, derailing her train of thought. "Willow, what...?"

"He's right, Buffy," she said. "And even if he wasn't, what are you going to do? Kill him?"

"I... I..."

"If so, y-you should kill me too," the redhead stammered. "He told me on Monday, when he first saw Ford. I knew too, and I didn't tell you, just like him."

"Wh-why not?" Buffy asked. "I thought you were my friend?"

"I am," she said. "We are, Buffy, but..."

"But in time, Buffy, you can forgive us," Xander said quietly. "If we'd told you, you wouldn't be able to forgive yourself."

Buffy stumbled back, then turned and ran for the back exit.

"We should-..." Willow started.

"No, Will," Xander said, grabbing the hem of her shirt to stop her. "Just let her go. She needs time to think."

"Yeah... I guess you're right," she murmured.

Xander picked himself up off the floor and pulled her into a fierce hug. "Thanks, Will."

She blinked at him quizzically, "For what?"

He pulled back and brushed her hair out of her face. "For standing up for me, Will. That's..." he trailed off.

"That's what?" she frowned. There were only a few ways that sentence could end. "That's... not like me? My God, Xander, what happened to us?"

Xander looked away and murmured, "Cordelia. Angelus. Oz. The Fluke. Faith. So many things."

"Cordelia?" she recoiled.

"Not gonna happen this time around," he said with a lopsided grin. "That much, I'm sure of."

"And Faith?" she frowned. "What about her?"

"Long story, not something you need to hear," he said, waving it off.

"Resolve face," she said, glaring it at him.

"I was in a bad place, Will," he said quietly, "and you'd made your choice."

"What choice?"

"Not me," he said simply, then turned and left. Behind him, a horrified Willow contemplated the many possible meanings behind his words.

* * *

Xander -- or perhaps more accurately, Green Lantern -- hovered high above Sunnydale, his altitude wavering unsteadily. Unshed tears glistened in his eyes as he wrestled to get his emotions under control.

He had his Willow back. Until just moments ago, he hadn't realized just how much he'd missed his Willow.

But... it seemed it wasn't without sacrifice. Somehow, some way, he'd lost his Buffy.

"No," he snarled. He glared at the heavens defiantly and said, "I won't let that happen. Do you hear me? I won't lose them, either of them!" His voice dropped, "Any of them."

With that, he stabilized his flight and gently lowered himself to the roof. He had someone to talk to...

* * *

"Buffy?" Willow called hesitantly as she walked through the cemetary toward the sounds of violence. It was the third cemetary she had checked. Given what happened, it was a fair bet Buffy was somewhere in one of Sunnydale's many graveyards, looking for a vampire to vent her frustrations on.

Violently.

She continued following the sounds of violence, expecting to see Buffy thrashing a vampire or three.

She saw the vampire-thrashing she was expecting, but it wasn't Buffy delivering it.

It was Faith.

And she was glowing green.

And... wielding a lightsaber?

_What is she?_ Willow wondered, her mind refusing to accept the obvious answer.

* * *

Buffy cried.

She was on her bed, clutching Mr. Gordo and sobbing uncontrollably as she tried to come to terms with what she'd almost done. She was the Slayer, and she'd tried to... tried to...

She'd tried to kill one of her best friends.

"Buffy?"

At the sound of her name, she looked up and blinked blearily at the door. "Mom?"

Joyce Summers hurried in worriedly. "Buffy, what's wrong?" she asked, pulling her daughter into a hug.

"I screwed up," she bawled, clutching her mother like a life preserver. "I screwed up, and now they hate me!"

"Who, dear?" Joyce asked, stroking her daughter's hair comfortingly. "Why don't you tell me about it, Buffy?"

"It's Angel," Buffy muttered. "It always comes back to Angel. Xander never understood-..."

"Who's Angel?"

"Uh, no one," Buffy said quickly. Her mind went into overdrive as she tried to figure out how to explain what happened without letting the cat out of the bag. "It's about Ford," she finally croaked out.

"Oh, honey," Joyce pulled her into another hug. She'd heard about Ford's death this morning. Something about gang members on PCP.

"He..." Buffy shuddered, barely able to keep her wits about her as the emotions rushed back, "he was dying, Mom. A-a brain tumor. A-and... he wanted to..." she hesitated, "...go out in a blaze of glory, so he started hanging with this gang... Xander... he figured it out, but... but he knew I wouldn't believe him, so he didn't tell me. And... and when I found out... I... I attacked him, Mom! Oh, God, I could've killed him!"

* * *

Joyce Summers thought about what had happened. Buffy hadn't been completely coherent and had clammed up on some of the topics that had come up. So, after Buffy had cried herself to sleep, Joyce had tucked her in and gone looking for someone who might be able to tell her more.

"Damn kid," the drunkard slurred. "Always running off when there's work that needs to be done! I dunno where he is!"

Joyce was sorely tempted to hit Anthony Harris.

No, that wasn't quite accurate. She was barely containing the urge to beat the living daylights out Anthony Harris. Yes, that was more accurate.

"So, you don't know where he is?" she asked, just to confirm.

"I already said that, didn't I?" he snarled brusquely. "Ask that Jew whore of his next door, or that blonde slu-"

WHAM!

That done, Joyce Summers spun on her heel and left.

A few minutes later, she hesitated in front of the Rosenberg house, one hand about to knock. Thinking better of it, she turned and headed back to her car parked on the roadside.

She then began driving to the hospital. Her hand hurt too much not to have broken something.

It did not dampen the satisfaction she had for decking that drunk son of a bitch.

She made a mental note to contact CPS. And if that didn't work, then by God, she was going to drag Xander over to move in with her and Buffy. By the ear if necessary.

* * *

Xander frowned in confusion as he returned "home" from patrol. The Harris domicile was not what he really considered home, but it would do for now. Besides, Willow still lived next door, and he was willing to put up with the drunken mess if it meant being near his Willow.

The confusion stemmed one question that was running through his mind: What on Earth was Joyce Summers doing at his door at this hour?

WHAM!

Well, okay, apparently, she was punching out his father. But why?

Not that he hadn't had the same urge on more than on occasion, but... well, for some reason, Joyce doing it just didn't fit the picture.

Well, either way, it was too dangerous out at night to let her wander around alone, even in a car. Especially since she still didn't know about the hellmouthy life.

"No rest for the weary," he muttered in resignation.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

For those of you waiting on The Nighthawk Chronicles, consider this a bit of a commercial break. Except with no commercials, just other 'ficcage.


	6. Chapter 5

Title: Emerald Spark (5/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"Buffy hardly trusts me at all as it is, Mrs. Summers," Xander said. 

"She's my daughter, Xander. Please."

"All right, fine," he sighed. "Angel's... tall, dark -- well, actually kinda pale -- and handsome. He's got this aura of mystery around him, but I think he really cares for Buffy. I just think the whole thing's doomed from the start."

"Why would you think that?" she asked.

"That's kind of hard to say."

_Oh, boy, is that an understatement..._ he thought. There was literally no way he could possibly explain the whole soul curse clause thing without making the big reveal... and as much as he felt Mrs. Summers should know, it was still Buffy's mom and Buffy's decision.

"Now, I'll admit," he said finally, "I'm hardly objective here -- hormones and all when I first met her -- and I really think she needs to find a nice boy -- or girl, for that matter -- her own age as opposed to going after the whole Harlequin romance thing, but she's been very vocal about what she thinks of my opinion on this matter."

"Girl?" Joyce cocked an eyebrow.

He shrugged, "Whatever makes her happy. I don't think, in the long run, Angel can do that for her."

"But say... someone like you could?" she probed.

He waved it off, "I have other priorities right now, ma'am, and... and I suppose there's too much history between us for us to ever get together like that."

Joyce frowned, "You've only known her for a year."

"A lot can happen in a year," he murmured.

"I see."

_I wish you could,_ Xander thought, before Joyce started speaking again.

"I think I'd like to meet this 'Angel.'"

_Oh, crap._

"I'm not sure if that-"

"In fact, I insist."

_Crap. Crap! Crap crap crap!_

"Um..." he coughed. "I'll see what I can arrange. Oh, there's one other thing. The reason he's kinda pale is because he has a... congenital skin condition. Burns easily in the sun."

_Oh, boy, is that an understatement..._ he thought for a second time.

"Do what you can," she said. "I'd appreciate it either way, Xander."

_What have I gotten myself into? When did I lose control?_

In the back of Xander's mind, his inner Cordy snarked, _What makes you think you ever had control? This is Joyce, remember?_

What worried Xander more than the fact that this voice was correct was the fact it sounded like Cordelia... though he supposed it could have been worse: It could have sounded like Harmony.

* * *

"You told her what?!" 

"Hey, don't look at me!" Xander protested, holding his hands up placatingly. "I don't know where she even heard your name, but she was asking about you. What was I supposed to do? Lie?"

Angel looked at him. He scowled back.

"Nuh uh. Keeping secrets is one thing, Angel, but I won't lie to Mrs. Summers like that. She deserves better than that. I told her you had a congenital skin condition that made you burn easily, okay? And all I said was that I'd try."

"Which pretty much obligates me to meet her anyway," Angel shot back. "If I don't, I look like a jerk."

"'Look like,' my ass," Xander muttered under his breath. "Look, Angel, think about it. You're dating her daughter. She's a mom. She worries. The least you could do is talk to her."

"Like you said, Harris, she's Buffy's mother, and I'm dating her daughter. She'll want to kill me."

"And the problem with that is?" Xander snarked for a moment before he sighed. "Look, if you want, I'll be there to play referee. I'll even promise not to snark at you while she's there."

Angel stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. Shaking it off, he paced, "Why not tell Buffy?"

Xander looked at Angel as if he'd grown a set of wings, "And have her pissed at both of us?! Are you nuts?!" He shook his head, "C'mon, Angel, is meeting Buffy's mom really that scary?"

"She drove off Spike!" Angel snapped. "Buffy told me she hit him over the head with a fire axe!"

"Wouldn't that drive you off?" Xander asked reasonably. "Unless, you know, the rumors are true, and you're a masocist of some kind..."

"It is driving me off," Angel growled, ignoring the jab. "If it weren't, we wouldn't be having this argument, would we?"

"No, we wouldn't, just like we wouldn't if you would just be a man about it and go meet her."

That jab, Angel didn't ignore.

"All right, fine," he glowered. "I'll meet her."

* * *

Xander would never know how the meeting went. All he could figure out for sure was that it must have gone well after he made his discreet exit, or Angel and Buffy would have come after him. 

As it was, he didn't question it. Whatever would happen with Angel would happen. And whatever that was, Xander had a promise to keep.

Two promises, actually. One to Angel... and one to Angelus, back in that other timeline.

When Child Protective Services showed up, Xander was... touched. And a little confused. They had never shown an interest in him the last time around, and he was trying to puzzle through what he could possibly have done to attract their attention this time.

"God damned bitch," he heard Tony mutter under his breath. For a brief moment, Xander pondered what kind of pattern Tony's brains -- provided he actually still had any after all that booze -- would make on the wall...

It would be... so easy...

The moment lasted only a split-second, but it was far longer than he was comfortable with.

Which was why he was caught a little out of sorts and was unable to completely deflect the CPS agents' attention.

One might wonder why Xander would prefer to stay with his biological parents. The reason was actually pretty simple, and it was all tied to his responsibilities, both to patrolling the hellmouth and rebuilding the Corps. The last thing he needed was to be placed with responsible parents.

Responsible parents would actually notice -- and care -- that he was out at all hours of the night.

While emancipation was possible, he wasn't about to bet on that. Especially since he couldn't claim an independent income, as "asteroid mining" was hardly the sort of business he could legitimately report to the government.

* * *

Monica had seen a lot of things in her existence, but even by the loosest of standards, CPS should have taken this child, Alexander Harris, away from his parents a long time ago. She just couldn't see how that hadn't happened yet. 

Though, she supposed, he wasn't really a child anymore. Not in the ways that counted, anyway.

"I don't understand, Tess. How is it that no one called Child Protective Services before?" She shook her head, "The hospital records alone..."

"People are blind to what they don't want to admit, baby," the dark-skinned older woman replied gently. "There's also a dark presence here that encourages them not to look too closely."

"He tried to pretend like it wasn't happening," Monica commented. "Like he was fine there. Why?"

"He's afraid," Tess said simply. "Not for himself, but for his mission. He's afraid we'll put him where he can't help others."

"I suppose that's why we're here, then," Monica murmured. "He deserves a little happiness."

"And he'll get it," Tess assured her. "He'll need it for the road ahead. He's slipped out of destiny's grasp and into uncharted waters."

* * *

As far as Xander was concerned, compared to trying to fend off the far-too-helpful-to-be-true CPS agents, dealing with Eyghon was almost too easy. 

One dead body plus one one-way trip to the sun equalled one crispy fried demon

The hard part was ditching the two CPS women long enough to do that. He had a theory on those CPS agents, by the way. As stated before, they were far too helpful to be the real deal.

He was betting on demon. After all, there were demon lawyers. Why not demon CPS agents? That bureacracy was evil -- a necessary evil, but evil nonetheless -- was a widely accepted fact, after all.

Plus, they were female. And interested in him. Even if only on a professional basis. That, more than anything else, was what cinched it for him.

Unfortunately, his hopes of finding and disposing of Spike and Drusilla were in vain. However, the time, he knew, was fast approaching the point where he wouldn't need to find them.

Career week was coming up.

And with it, half the Scourge of Europe...

...and Kendra.

* * *

Author's Postscript: 

Monica and Tess are more of a cameo than anything else. I have never actually watched even a single full episode of Touched by an Angel, so I relied on Yorath to get their "voices" right.


	7. Chapter 6

Title: Emerald Spark (6/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at or Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"Ahh, career week," Xander said. "Such utter pointlessness. I wonder if they'll actually get it right this time?"

"You're awfully enthusiastic about this," Willow frowned. "I would've expected you to be raging over the indignities of predicting your future with a multiple choice test."

"And I was," he replied. "The first time around. The difference now is... none of this matters!" he laughed. "I know what's in my future, and no multiple choice survey's going to change that."

"Oh?" Willow brightened up. She'd been trying to get Xander to spill on the future ever since she had accepted that he actually knew it. "Like what?"

"Carpentry," he said with a shrug. He figured there was no harm in it. "Saving the world, one stake at a time."

"What about me?" she asked eagerly.

He didn't answer, and his expression didn't change, but she could see the joy in his eyes die.

_Oh, no,_ she thought mournfully. _It must have been something else, something that got between us._ She thought back to the list he'd given her before: Cordelia. Angelus. Oz. The Fluke. Faith.

Cordelia. She recoiled at the very thought of Her Majesty, Queen C of Sunnydale High. Whatever it was about Cordelia that had gotten between them, it wasn't on her side of the equation, she was sure of that. After careful reexamination, she was forced to admit that there was a possibility that Cordelia may, in fact, not be irredeemably evil and borderline slay-worthy. A teeny, tiny, highly improbable possibility. And if -- big if, in her mind -- that was the case, she could see how Xander might see it before she did. Mainly because he was a guy, and Cordelia was hot.

Angelus. That was Angel without his soul. Willow could easily picture Buffy's reaction if Angel lost his soul, and at this point, she was also willing to admit that she would probably have sided with Buffy if she weren't so afraid of losing her friendship with Xander.

Oz. Who was Oz? Or did he mean the Wizard of Oz? Australia, maybe? Maybe that was it. Maybe she'd moved to Australia? It seemed a little farfetched, though. Still...

The Fluke. What on Earth was the Fluke? Wasn't that a kind of fish? How could a fish ruin a friendship? Maybe she really liked it, and he was allergic? Or maybe he really liked it, and she was allergic? Hmm...

And Faith. Now that she thought about it... did he mean Faith or faith? She did say it was after she'd chosen something else over him. Maybe she joined a convent! And moved to Australia! And ate fluke all the time, which he couldn't stand!

No, wait, that was silly. Never mind that she was Jewish, were there even flukes in Australia?

"Willow? Earth to Willowww."

She blinked and looked at Xander again, "Huh?"

"You're babbling in your head again, Will," he said with an amused smile.

"Hey, cut it out!" she protested, trying to duck away as he reached over and ruffled her hair.

* * *

The next day was pretty much as Xander had expected... almost.

"Oh, here I am," Cordelia said. "'Personal shopper or motivational speaker.' Neato!

"Really?" Xander smiled nostalgically. "I would've thought more actress or... hero."

Cordelia looked up in surprise. _Was that a compliment? From Xander? _ She ran over that again, _Yup. Definitely a compliment. Wait, did he call me a hero? What the hell is going on?_

"Did you just call me a sandwich?" she asked suspiciously. The blank look he gave her was answer enough. Shaking it off, she turned her attention back to her booklet, "Oh, what about you? You're..." She blinked, "Police or military."

That, he wasn't expecting.

"What?" he blinked and flipped through his own copy. "Huh."

_Well,_ he mused silently, _that could be a good thing, in case the Tarakans do show up._

* * *

"Buffy," Giles said after they finish straightening the stack of books. "Thank you." Buffy sat as he continued, "I've been, uh, indexing the Watcher diaries covering the last couple of centuries. You would be amazed at how numbingly pompous and long-winded some of these Watchers were."

"Color me stunned."

"So, uh, I trust last night's patrol was fruitful?"

"Semi," Buffy shrugged. "Mmm, I caught one out of two vamps after they stole something from this jumbo mausoleum.

Giles blinked, "They were stealing?"

"Yeah! They had tools, flashlights, whole nine yards. What does that mean anyway? 'Whole nine yards'?" Giles began to pace as she rambled on, "Nine yards of what? Giles, you're in pace mode. What gives?

"Um, this vampire who escaped, did you see what he took?"

"No, but I could take a guess and say it was something old."

"You made no effort to find out what was taken?"

"Have a cow, Giles! I just figured it was your everyday vamp hijinks."

"It wasn't, Buffy," the interruption came from the double doors leading to the rest of the school. Xander entered and blew out a sigh, "It's the Du Lac Cross, a sort of super secret decoder ring to an ancient book that contains a ritual to restore power to a vampire."

Giles began polishing his glasses, "A-are you sure?"

"As shootin'," Xander nodded. "Buffy, you'll need to warn Angel. They'll need him for the ritual to revive Drusilla."

"Great," she said. "I'll tell him at the rink."

* * *

"This is it then?" Spike asked, looking at the cross as Drusilla passed her hands over it.

"It hums," she said. "I can hear it."

"Once you're well again, we'll have a coronation down Main Street and invite everyone and drink for seven days and seven nights," Spike promised.

"What about the Slayer?" Dalton asked. "She almost blew the whole thing for us. She's trouble."

Spike looked at him, "You don't say?" He rose to his feet, "Trouble?!" He began to pace. "She's the gnat in my ear! The gristle in my teeth! She's the bloody thorn in my BLOODY SIDE!" he snarled, kicking over a nearby table.

"Spike?" Drusilla asked.

"We gotta do something. We'll never complete your cure with that bitch breathing down our necks." Spike blew out a sigh, "I need to bring in the big guns. They'll take care of her once and for all."

"'Big guns'?" Dalton asked.

"The Order of Taraka," clarified Spike.

"The bounty hunters?!" Dalton blurted out.

Drusilla dealt out three tarot cards. "They're coming to my party," she said. She looked up, "Three of them."

"Uh, yes," Dalton said, "but... the Order of Taraka, I mean... isn't that overkill?

"No," Spike shot back, "I think it's just enough kill."

Drusilla clutched her head and shook it side to side, "No, no, NO! Not enough. Not enough kill." She looked up at Spike, "I don't like this place. We should leave, Spike, before the emerald flames burn us all."

"Not a chance, love," Spike murmured. "Not 'til you're strong again. Not when we're this close."

* * *

"Hi!" the redhead chirped from behind Tara, causing her to jump a little in surprise.

"Um, h-hi?" she stammered back.

"We were never properly introduced," the redhead said. "I'm Xander's best friend, Willow."

"T-Tara. Nice to meet you."

"I don't believe this!" The interruption came from the brunette stalking down the hall toward Tara, a virtual stormcloud hovering over her head.

"What's wrong?" Tara asked.

Faith glowered and shook the little booklet at her, "This! They want me to be a f---ing prison guard!" She took a deep breath to calm down and asked, "So, what'd they put you with, T?"

"Counselor," Tara replied.

Faith's scowl darkened, "Damn it. You got something good, fits you to a T, T. And I get stuck with prison guard? Ain't fair."

"W-well, I doubt they're going to have 'exotic dancer' here."

"Shit," Faith snorted. "That'd be better than prison guard." Her gaze tracked over to Willow, "How 'bout you, Red? Oh, name's Faith."

"Um, uh, um," Willow stammered, then said in a small voice, "I'm not on the list. Xander says they have something special for me."

"Wicked."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

No, I'm not dead.


	8. Chapter 7

Title: Emerald Spark (7/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"Ten years?!" Faith sputtered.

Willow nodded dejectedly, "Uh huh."

"He really is blind, isn't he?" Tara frowned.

Faith chuckled and shook her head, "Hey, T, how do you feel about the X-man?"

"H-huh?" Tara squeaked. "M-me?"

Faith grinned, "Yeah. You."

"Um, well..." Tara flushed. "He's a sweetie."

Faith's grin broadened, "You've got a thing for the Xandman too, huh? So, why you blushing, T? Ain't nothing to be ashamed of. Kinda fancy him myself, actually."

"You too?" Willow asked, a mixture of horror and disbelief on her face.

"No worries, Red," Faith waved off her concern. "Things between me and X? Not going there. Yet. You two are free and clear to chase him down," she winked, "but that's a limited time offer, ladies. If he's still on the market when I get back in the game, you can bet I'll snatch him up."

"He's not a piece of meat, Faith," Willow scowled.

"Maybe not, but I'd like to try **his** meat," Faith leered.

Willow and Tara alternately blushed and paled, and Faith was amused by how they seemed to take turns in synch, one blushing while the other paled, as though they shared the same blood supply.

_My job here is done,_ she decided.

The rest of the school day passed uneventfully.

* * *

"Are you sure he was telling the truth?" Angel asked doubtfully. They were at the ice rink, and his mind wasn't really on what Buffy had just told him. His thoughts were on the one-eyed brute lying dead on the ice... and the ring on his finger. Compared to the Order of Taraka coming after Buffy, anything Xander said couldn't be that important.

"Angel," Buffy shot back, "he warned me and told **me** to protect **you**. Does that sound like something he'd make up a story for?"

"Well, no," he admitted, "but then again, I don't really see him telling you to **protect** me, even if he was telling the truth."

She looked away. "Well, okay, maybe not so much 'protect' as 'warn,'" she conceded, "but the point stands."

* * *

Rupert Giles was clutching the latest batch of Watcher Chronicles for indexing when he was suddenly confronted by a teenager he had never seen before in his life.

"Good Lord!" he sputtered, stumbling back in surprise. "C-can I help you?"

"I'd say you can," came a familiar voice. "Wasn't sure she'd show."

The dark-skinned girl whirled toward where Xander's voice was coming from, "Who are you?"

"Name's Xander," he replied. "Giles, meet Kendra. The Vampire Slayer."

* * *

Author's Note:

Wow, this would be a really short chapter, wouldn't it? Alas, it's just totally in the wrong place for a chapter break, so I'll have to be satisfied with another of my oh-so-annoying mid-chapter notes.

* * *

"You are Alexander?" Kendra asked suspiciously. "De one who knows de future?"

Xander blinked in surprise, then scowled at Giles, "Have you been telling tales, G-man?"

"W-well," the Watcher stammered, caught off-guard, "I had to tell Mister Zabuto something, and I can only conclude he felt it important enough to mention it to her when he sent her here." Giles frowned and looked at Kendra, "If I may ask, why **are** you here?"

"Her Watcher blah blah signs -- that movie **sucked**, by the way -- blah blah dark power rising blah blah," Xander said. "She's here 'cause of Drusilla and that ritual that they grabbed the Du Lac Cross to translate. Hopefully, with the warning -- and without little Miss Slays-a-Lot here tying him up for them like a Christmas present -- they won't be able to nab Deadboy to do the ritual."

"Who is 'Deadboy'?" Kendra queried.

"Angel," Xander said. "Formerly known as Angelus, Scourge of Europe, possibly a future Champion for the Pricks That Be. He's currently in possession of his soul and an ally."

"You work wid a vampire?" Kendra blinked incredulously. Her discipline kept all but the barest hints of shock, disbelief, and a query of their sanity out of her voice.

"Yeah," Xander nodded. "We do."

"But de Slayer fights alone."

"Not anymore," Xander's expression hardened. "Tell me, Kendra, how long does a Slayer usually last after being Called? Do you know?"

She shook her head.

"A year." They turned. It was Giles who had answered, his voice quiet. "Most Slayers die within a year of being Called."

"Exactly," Xander nodded. "In the future I saw, Kendra, Buffy was still alive nearly **twelve** years after she was Called. I knew another Slayer, still alive, eight or nine years after being Called. It wasn't because she was the Slayer -- obviously -- and it wasn't because she was somehow a better Slayer than others. It's because she had us. Friends, allies, a support network that was willing to do whatever it took to help."

Kendra frowned as she did the subtraction in her head, and she asked quietly, afraid to confirm what the math had told her, "And me?"

Xander's face grew somber. "One year. May nineteenth, next year, in this very library." He pointed, "Right over there, in fact. Your throat was slit by Drusilla, also of the Scourge of Europe and also the dark power your Watcher is expecting to rise here. She's weak right now, but if they pull this ritual off..." he trailed off meaningfully and shrugged.

Kendra paled, a considerable feat, given her complexion. It wasn't very often that you were told exactly when, where, and how you going to die.

"And where were you?" she asked, the edges of anger and fear creeping into her voice. "Where was this 'support network' you were talking about?"

"Over there," Xander pointed again, his voice wooden. "I was in the stacks, knocked out and with a broken arm." He pointed again, "Willow was under that bookshelf. Giles was the real target. They needed information. Buffy was lured away earlier, and they attacked in force."

"Did you try and stop her?"

He closed his eyes, remembering, then shook his head and sighed, "No, not really, Giles. We all figured it was a trap. We just thought it was a trap for her." He opened his eyes and quirked his lips into something approaching a smile, "Again. I guess we should've thought of it, what with that 'raise the Master' thing a few months ago, but we dropped the ball."

Xander shook his head emphatically, "But enough dithering about what **might** happen in six months, we've got enough to do right now." He paused and blinked, "'Dithering'? Did I just say '**dithering**'? He shot Giles a friendly glare, "Giles, I hate you sometimes."

"Giles!"

The three turned as Buffy barged in, and she stopped in surprise as she caught sight of Kendra.

Xander gestured, "Buffy, Kendra. Kendra, Buffy. The Vampire Slayers." He looked over at the senior Slayer, "So, Buff, what brings you here?"

"This," Buffy said, holding up a ring.

"Shit," Xander said succinctly upon recognizing the ring. "The Order of Taraka."

"**What?**" chorused two voices.

"Huh?" went Buffy.

* * *

Kendra entered the room she was staying in while she was in Sunnydale. Even Slayers had to sleep some time, and that required a secure location.

"You seem troubled, Kendra."

Her head snapped up. "I spoke with him," she said, losing the false accent she had affected.

"'Him'?" the gentle voice repeated. "I assume you don't mean Rupert, since that's where you were headed. So you must be referring to Alexander. What do you make of him?"

"He is..." she hesitated, trying to come up with the right words. "He acts like a clown, but I think it is a disguise. Whatever he says, don't take it at face value. He knew exactly why I was here."

"What did he say?"

"He said it is a vampire named Drusilla," she said. "She is weakened, but there is a ritual by Du Lac that will restore her, and someone seeks to perform the ritual."

"Hmm," he nodded. "That's quite concise. Anything else?"

"He told me..." she paused, unable to continue for a moment. "He told me how I... how I would die. May nineteenth, next year. Here, in Sunnydale. My throat slit by Drusilla."

"I see," he frowned. "Well, then, we'll just have to deal with Drusilla first, won't we, Kendra?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded and turned it over in his head for a moment, "I think I'd like to meet him. Get a measure of this young man for myself."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Okay, a little bit of explanation here. Kendra was clearly raised in isolation by her Watcher. It strikes me that the Council is highly unlikely to entrust a likely potential Slayer to a local. Therefore, if she has any accent at all, it should be a slight British accent... certainly **not** a heavy Caribbean accent. Raised in isolation by a Watcher, she wouldn't have had enough exposure to a Caribbean accent to develop it herself.

So, I'm going with the theory that her accent is faked, intended to make people around her (i.e.: the vampires and demons she fights) underestimate the "simple island girl," and that in the original timeline, she never had the opportunity to open up to the Scoobs enough to let them know.


	9. Chapter 8

Title: Emerald Spark (8/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"You sure you're all right, Mom?" Buffy asked. Again.

"I'm fine, Buffy," Joyce assured her daughter -- again -- holding up her braced hand. "It's just a sprain."

The blonde teenager pouted, "I know, Mom. It's just... I worry. You shouldn't go out at night. It's not safe for you."

"But it's safe for you?" Joyce cocked an eyebrow.

"That's different."

"It always is."

Buffy huffed. How could she make her understand? The answer came unbidden to her mind: _You **could** tell her the truth._ She scowled at the thought, and not just because the thought came in Xander's voice. She banished the thought, huffed again, indignantly this time, and marched to her room.

Joyce shook her head and muttered aloud, "I wonder if I'll ever understand that girl."

* * *

Elsewhere, Xander frowned. Soon after Kendra had left, he had gone to Revello Drive and hunted down Bug Guy. He had easily disposed of him, but it had been too late for Mrs. Kalish, a neighbor of Buffy's who Bug Guy had killed in order to acquire a base of operations.

He had failed her.

He had never met Mrs. Kalish. She was just another of the many revolving "new arrivals" to Sunnydale. That didn't change the fact that he had failed her. He'd gotten careless, forgotten that there had been other victims, "collateral damage" dealt by the Tarakans in pursuit of their contracts.

Still...

_Two down._

* * *

"Buffy."

"What do you want?" the Slayer scowled at Xander. They were in school, and she was still edgy about the Tarakans. Despite Xander's reassurances, the way Angel and Giles had freaked still bothered her.

Plus, there was that other Slayer too. The last thing she wanted was a living, breathing reminder that **she** had briefly been... well... not.

"You check on Angel since last night?" he murmured.

Buffy started, then glared at him, "What do you care?"

"Mainly?" he shrugged. "Because, as I said, they need him for the ritual. I'd rather have Dru weak and Spike in charge than the other way around. He's a hell of a lot more predictable."

"Oh," she blinked. "Well, yeah. I filled him in. He told me he was going underground for a while."

"Good," he nodded. "Where?"

"What?" she blinked.

"Where is he?" he elaborated.

"Why?" Buffy frowned suspiciously.

"I'm going to double-check."

"You don't trust me?" she pouted.

"I'm hedging my bets," he said simply. "So, where is he?"

"I don't know," she said. "We thought it would be safer if no one knew where he was."

Xander groaned. "Lovely. You do realize that also means **we** can't find **him** easily if we need to."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he sighed. "Nice to see you concerned about OpSec, but with need-to-know, there really **are** some people who need to know."

"'Opsick'?" Buffy blinked.

"Never mind."

* * *

Willow was... a little disturbed.

Willow Rosenberg was a genius, and like many geniuses, one of her greatest flaws is her curiousity. She couldn't stand to leave a book unread or a puzzle unsolved. In a way, that's what hacking was to her, just another set of puzzles to solve. So, now, when faced with the riddle of just **what** had happened between her and Xander in that other future...

Well, just yesterday, she'd gotten another piece of the puzzle. She had met Oz, who had, like her, been picked out by a Mr. McCarthy, head recruiter for the world's leading software concern. It gave her the jubblies.

He was a **senior!** And a guitarist!

Surely, Xander didn't mean that... that she and Oz...

It was impossible. Willow was a nerd. Oz, as a guitarist, was, by definition, cool. Nerds don't date cool people. If they date at all. It had to be something else.

* * *

Unlike most paramilitary forces, the Green Lantern Corps strongly encouraged creativity and artistic impulses. The reasons were twofold. Not only did the power rings that were the GLC's standard issue tools rely heavily on creativity, but the very nature of the GLC, in which individual members could expect to operate alone for months at a time, meant that the rigid adherence to regulations and precedents that other paramilitary forces relied on to maintain order could have disastrous results if a Lantern were faced with something completely unexpected.

Which tended to occur quite frequently. Patrolling a populated sector of space tended to guarantee that something new was always popping up somewhere.

Xander's artistic streak had begun with wood carvings. As a carpenter and experienced stake-carver, it had been a natural extension. He had a surprising affinity with wood; working with wood relaxed him, a sort of zen meditation thing, he supposed. He had expanded a bit beyond that, and sketching proved not to be much of a leap either, not with the amount of custom work he had done as a carpenter on the other side of the portal. He found that the easiest way to avoid disappointing a customer was to sketch out what he thought the customer wanted and have them review it before beginning the project for real.

Currently, though, it was lunchtime, and he was doodling aimlessly as he absent-mindedly scarfed down a sandwich.

"So... who is she?"

Xander jerked in surprise and looked up, "Who is who, Will?"

"C'mon, Xander," she glared, "I know we haven't been as close as we used to be, but I can still read you." She pointed at the notebook he was doodling in, "You've made so many sketches and wood carvings, I'd have to blind not to notice. You really miss her, don't you?"

Xander's gaze dropped to the half-finished sketch of Marina. After a moment, he simply nodded, "Yeah."

"So... who is she?" the redhead asked, taking a seat next to him. "I'd like... I'd like to know about the girl that made you happy."

"Sorry, Will," he said, shaking his head. "I just... I'm not ready to talk about her just yet."

"It helps to talk about it. Or so Mom says, anyway."

He chuckled, "I'm sure she does."

"Resolve face."

"Will," he said, "I was a Green Lantern there. You know how much willpower that takes. You really think that's still gonna work?"

"Resolve face."

"No, Will."

She began to pout. Complete with puppy dog eyes.

He twitched. She added a trembling lower lip.

Xander groaned, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose, "All right, fine." He opened his eyes again, but the look in them was distant, and he smiled faintly, "Her name was Marina."

After a moment, he tore himself from his memories and noted the blank look on Willow's face.

"She never appeared in any of the comics here," he explained. "She was Aquagirl."

"Oh," she nodded... then smiled and nodded for him to continue.

* * *

Xander never **had** gotten the details on the third Tarakan's first attack, last time around. All he knew was that the Tarakan had been posing as the police recruiter for Career Week and tried to shoot her.

Which, in his estimation, was a piss-poor way to try and kill Buffy. If anything, she should have just taken the time to identify Buffy as her target (though why she hadn't been provided with a picture was just as puzzling to him), then shot her with a sniper rifle from a couple hundred yards away when she was least expecting it. He wasn't about to complain, but the Tarakans did strike him as being remarkably... incompetent for a supposedly elite order of assassins.

The one-eyed guy had tried to **wrestle** with Buffy. The Slayer. When Angel was present. Even if Angel was human, all it would have taken was something sharp stabbed into something sensitive, and it would have been game over. Bug Guy had been a bit more competent, from what he remembered, setting up a nearby base of operations and scouting out the Summers home. How he actually intended to kill Buffy was something he didn't have enough clues to figure out.

It was something to ponder.

Were these assassins really Tarakans, or were they imposters, trying to cash in on the reputation?

Maybe they were trainees? Or probationary recruits?

With their reputation, the Tarakans should have been out of Spike's price range. Had they been more like, say, Curare...

Xander shuddered at the thought.

"All right, listen up, and answer when I call your name," came the woman's voice. "Buffy Summers."

Buffy raised her hand, and what happened next seem to move in slow motion. The Tarakan put the clipboard down and pulled out her sidearm, bringing it up to point it at Buffy.

Xander reacted on instinct. A green flare blinded everyone present, and the gun was ripped from the assassin's hands as she was thrown against the wall, pinned in place by a giant green glowing hand.

Buffy stared. "Xander?" she whispered in stunned awe as the Green Lantern, in full uniform, approached the assassin. He had reacted even faster than she had.

He nodded at the Slayer and said, "I'll explain later."

"A Stellar Sentinel?" the assassin blurted out in disbelief. Her voice was different now, distorted and deeper, with an odd echo to it. "Impossible!" she said. "The rings were all destroyed!"

"**What** did you call me?" Xander demanded, his face pale, as the construct hand slammed her against the wall again.

Her eyes flashed white, and her mouth opened, but no words emerged. Instead, a small, snake-like creature leaped from her mouth toward him, and he jerked back in surprise. Buffy caught the creature in mid-air and crushed it.

"Thanks, Buff," Xander said, looking at the creature. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Species: Goa'uld," chirped a computerized voice. It took a moment for them to realize it was his power ring speaking. "Sentient parasite native to Sector One Eight Eight Eight. Capable of overriding host body, regardless of host's willpower, via biological means. Possesses genetic memory and tends to be predisposed toward megalomania and god complexes. Note: Last record indicates a state of war between the Corps and the goa'uld."

Buffy blinked.

Xander blinked.

"Oh."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Okay, yeah, BtVS/SG-1 is by far one of the most common crossovers in fanfiction, but I did hint at it in chapter four, and I've got a whole lot of ideas for expanding on this.

Regarding the "Stellar Sentinel" thing and how the ring knew about the goa'uld... well, you know as much as they do about it.


	10. Chapter 9

Title: Emerald Spark (9/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Buffy found him on the roof.

After the danger had passed, Xander had quickly taken his leave, offering some hogwash about a publicity stunt by DC to the other students present and taking the policewoman with him. They seemed to accept the flimsy excuse at face value -- gotta love Sunnydale Syndrome -- and the rest of the school day passed without incident.

And without Xander.

She wasn't sure how she felt about all this. About him. A part of her realized that the grudge she held against him was completely irrational, especially after this long, and yet...

She was still several yards behind him when he spoke.

"Her name's Patrice," he said. "Patrice Miller, Officer, Sunnydale Police Department. We never knew, Buffy. Last time... we never even considered it."

Her breath caught in her throat, "You mean... we..."

"I don't know," he shrugged. "The fight in the church was a chaotic mess, and I was busy dealing with Bug Guy at the time, so... I don't know. I just don't know. But we never saw her again after that, and we all thought she was just another demon." He turned and smiled, "But here's the good news. You saw what happened down there. You know what this means?"

"Yeah," she scowled. "You kept your Green Lantern power ring that night and didn't tell anyone."

"Never mind that," he said, waving it off. "Think, Buffy! The goa'uld. As far as I know, they didn't exist in the world I remember. That means the ring got the info from somewhere else, accessing a local database. She called me a 'Stellar Sentinel.' That means there is -- **was** -- something like the Corps here!"

"So?"

"**So**," he said, drawing the word out, "the fact that the ring could access their database means some of their stuff survived. It means we might be able to recreate the Corps. Don't you get it, Buffy? A galactic space police force, armed with the most powerful weapons in the universe! And you! You could retire, Buffy. Live a normal life. No more sneaking out to save the world." His voice dropped, low enough that even Slayer hearing couldn't pick it up, "And I don't have to watch you self-destruct again."

Buffy wasn't listening anyway. At the sentence "You could retire, Buffy," her mind raced into overdrive. And she found herself wondering why the idea bothered her so much.

"I've got things to do, Buff," he said distractedly. "Later." Xander turned, and in a flash of green light, transformed into his uniform before flying off.

"Hey, wait!"

* * *

Xander descended on the abandoned church like an angel of destruction. He swept through the building, on a quest to lay waste to the undead infesting it.

It was disappointingly uninfested.

"Damn," he scowled. It was the church where Spike had initiated the ritual to restore Drusilla, and he saw signs of a hasty exit, which meant they had been here, but were somehow tipped them off.

He had a pretty good idea how, too.

"**Drusilla**," he hissed.

* * *

"Ooh, Kitten's mad," Dru cooed as she rocked back and forth. Spike was only half paying attention to her, though. The entire mess had fallen to pieces within hours. Angel had vanished, he hadn't had word from any of the Tarakans in far too long, and then Dru had warned him of the "emerald flames" that would hit the church.

It was infuriating.

Drusilla, on the other hand, didn't mind at all. Knowing exactly how your existence was going to end -- in her case, engulfed in green flames -- tended to have a surprisingly calming effect on one's psyche once one had had time enough to process it. Plus, she was totally bonkers. As if that weren't enough, her already unhinged mind was further disturbed by visions of the future-that-was, swept away by a hurricane of changes.

It was also giving her a distinctly unhealthy obsession with the young man at the eye of that storm.

"Find her," she murmured. "Find the little toy soldier. Her strength will become my strength."

That caught Spike's attention.

"Tell me more, luv," he said. "Tell me where to find this toy soldier."

* * *

"Hello, Alexander," the voice was oddly accented. Xander turned in surprise, and the man standing next to Kendra extended a hand, "My name is..."

"Sam Zabuto," Xander finished for him. He had met Kendra's Watcher only once in the previous timeline, back during the initial hunt for old-school Watchers who had the skills they needed and only needed a little "re-education" in how things were going to be from then on. He had been struck by the man's resemblance to Tucker Smallwood, the actor who played David Endawi in that episode of Babylon 5.

The resemblance was as strong as ever.

"I take it we've met?" Zabuto asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Once or twice," Xander shrugged. "Just in passing. More than that, I'd rather not say."

"Understood," Zabuto nodded. "You don't want to introduce changes to the timeline you cannot account for." At Xander's look, he added, "It's obvious you're changing the timeline. You couldn't avoid changing it if you tried, so you're trying to control the changes."

"How did you...?" Xander trailed off.

"It's what I would have done."

Xander nodded, "Fair enough."

* * *

"Mister Harris? I have something for you."

"Whatever you're sellin', we don't want any," Tony Harris growled and moved to slam the door in the stranger's face. The stranger blocked the door with one hand, then reached forward and wrapped the other around his throat.

"No, really," the stranger said. "I insist."

* * *

"Thank you for speaking with me, Alexander," Zabuto said. "It has been... most educational. I believe we are done. Kendra? Do you feel up to a patrol tonight? I believe Miss Summers is patrolling the Bronze area."

"Certainly, sir. I will patrol the odher cemetaries."

They hadn't spoken of the future. Rather, Zabuto had grilled Xander on the events that had given him his memories of the future and other past contributions to the Good Fight. Xander felt drained. He had encountered good interrogators before, but he'd never been this thoroughly spent.

On the other hand, he hadn't had anywhere near as much to hide before either. At the moment, he just wanted to go home and get some sleep.

So it was in this fatigued state that Xander entered the Harris home.

He didn't bother announcing his return. By this time of day, his parents had almost certainly drunk themselves into a stupor, and the last thing he needed was the temptation to show his father just how much his "worthless, no good son" could do if he were so inclined.

He was a little surprised to not find them passed out in the living room. Even more surprising was the note on the coffee table.

"Son,

"Surprise for you in the fridge.

"Love, Mom + Dad."

_What the hell?_ he frowned. _Since when do they give a damn about me? Is this for the CPS ladies' sake? God forbid they'd ever actually change for real..._ he shook the thought off and headed for the kitchen. The note's handwriting was a lot neater than he was used to seeing from either of his parents. Apparently, whichever one of them wrote it had actually been sober at the time, miraculously enough.

Something felt wrong. He wasn't sure why, but something -- about the note, about his parents' unexplained absence, about the whole situation in general -- was bothering him. It seemed... familiar, somehow...

He opened the fridge.

* * *

Kendra was in an alleyway between cemetaries. She had already covered three of the seven cemetaries on this side of town and was moving toward the fourth. Activity had been surprisingly light, with only half a dozen vampires so far. She had expected a hellmouth to have a much higher vampire population than that, but she was not about to complain.

"Hello, girl."

She turned in surprise. The one who had spoken was a bleached blond vampire, wearing a leather jacket. From the description, it had to be the one called Spike. At least thirty vampires, ten on either side of her, and five on each wall. She silently cursed herself for getting complacent. This, at least, explained the strange absence of vampires in the first three cemetaries.

Drawing a second stake with her left hand, she prepared for the coming onslaught.

"Get her!" Spike yelled. The vampires charged.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Well, imagine that. A double cliffhanger.

Hands up if you think you know what's coming.


	11. Chapter 10

Title: Emerald Spark (10/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Xander felt strangely numb at the sight of his parents' dismembered bodies in the refrigerator. He knew he should have felt something -- anything -- other than an analytical assessment of the evidence. The presence of blood indicated that it probably wasn't a vampire, but the absence of blood outside the fridge indicated that they were probably already dead when they were dismembered.

It wasn't the goriest thing he had ever seen. Far from it. He had seen things far more gruesome in Africa.

He had lived through their deaths once before, in the previous timeline, so maybe that had something to do with his odd detachment; he had already come to grips with his ambivalent feelings for them last time.

"Be careful who you model yourself after, kid. This is the real world, not a comic book."

Xander spun... and froze.

There was a man leaning against the wall. A ring rested prominently around the man's finger. The Order of Taraka. But it wasn't the man's ring that drew Xander's attention. It was his face.

Xander had recruited many people during his time in Africa. One of those people was Roger Sloan, formerly a sergeant in Her Majesty's Royal Australian Marine Corps, until he had a run-in with the supernatural. Afterwards, in his own words, "Naturally, I reported it. Next thing I knew, I was -- what do you Yanks call it? -- Section Eighted and lucky to stay out of the loony bin."

At least, that was the story he'd told Xander. The fact that the man he had once known as Roger Sloane was standing here, now, wearing a ring that symbolized membership in the Order of Taraka cast serious doubt on it.

"Who are you?" Xander asked calmly. "What do you want?"

"Who I am is not important," Roger said. "Who I represent is."

"The Order of Taraka."

"Precisely," Roger nodded. "I'm here as an observer. The contract on the Slayer was strictly small-time, and so I came along to assess the rookies. You hunted down and killed one of us, so we hunted down and killed two of yours. You kill a Tarakan trying to make the kill, that comes with the territory. You start hunting us down, we strike back, twice as hard. It's obvious you didn't care much for your parents, and Norman was on the job at the time, so consider this a warning, kid. Don't hunt any more of us down, and we'll be free and clear. Unless, of course, someone's paying."

Xander growled, "First, you're a bunch of paid killers, which pretty much makes you open season to me. Second, you accepted a contract and came into **my** town to kill one of **my** girls, so why you'd think I'd just sit around and wait once I found out is beyond me. Seems you've gotten a touch arrogant with the great Tarakan rep. So understand this, you come into my town, and I find out about it... well, that just means the season's opened and there's no bag limit. And there's nothing you can do to stop me. You know that, or you wouldn't be here, talking to me about it."

"Maybe not, but we can kill your friends, your family," Sloan countered. "You can't protect them all the time."

"You do that, and you leave me with nothing left to lose," Xander said, his voice growing flat and cold. "Do you really want a man with the most powerful weapon in the universe and nothing left to lose coming after you?"

"Not really, no. I think arrangements can be made. The hellmouth isn't good for business anyway. Too much local talent."

"Then we might have an understanding," Xander hissed. "I'm not interested in hunting the Tarakans as whole. Far as I'm concerned, you're small fry, tools for rent. But if I ever run across any of you... well, like I said, you're paid killers, so it's already open season as far as I'm concerned. You come after me and mine... well, then, it's war."

"Reasonable," Roger nodded. "Like I said, killed on the job... par for the course. I'll discuss it with my superiors."

"Good," Xander said coldly. "Now, get out."

* * *

Xander was in an interrogation room in one of Sunnydale PD's precincts. While he had had to let Roger go in order to seal the deal, he still had a couple of bodies in the fridge, so he'd called the police, and basically told them everything that had happened, except for the conversation. Now, though, Detective Stein was reading him the riot act, making all sorts of oblique threats and basically trying to intimidate a confession out of him.

"Breakfast, lunch, or dinner?" Xander finally asked.

Detective Stein turned, "What?"

"Come on, Stein," Xander snorted. "You know what goes on in this town. You know what me and mine do to keep your and yours from being eaten. So, if you really take us down, the only question is... will you be breakfast, lunch, or dinner?" He leaned back and met the detective's gaze evenly, "You've got means, motive, and opportunity, but no evidence. Believe me, Stein, I know how things work in this city. I know you've got the connections to pin a conviction on me if you really wanted to. But what would that accomplish? You know I didn't do it, and even if I did, it would turn into a Lifetime special on how this great city's Social Services failed."

Xander would never know what Stein's response would have been, as it was at this time that the door opened. They both turned to look, and the detective scowled, "I thought I said-"

"This conversation's over," the older woman said in an authoritative voice that most drill instructors would have loved to have. "We're with CPS, Detective, and we're taking custody of Alexander here." She paused and added, "I do find it interesting that you've been interrogating him without legal counsel present. Not exactly by the book, is it, Detective?"

"This is my precinct, so I'll do as I please! The kid's a suspect in his parents' murder, and he's got a history of being-"

"Abused by those people and ignored by the city services," Tess interrupted, her steely gaze locked onto Stein's. "I can assure you that this **will** be investigated, Detective. Fully. So either charge him, or we're walking out of here."

Stein quivered, then scowled, "Sign the kid out of here."

Xander suppressed sigh. _Damn it!_ he thought. _I had it all under control, and now, this happens!_

* * *

Officer Patrice Miller turned at the footstep she heard. She snapped her sidearm up and thumbed back the hammer. "Police," she hissed. "Hands where I can see them. No sudden moves."

"Don't shoot," came the reply as the woman stepped out of the shadows, hands up and open.

"This is a crime scene, ma'am," Patrice said, relaxing slightly. "You shouldn't be here."

"I'm sorry," the woman replied, shaking her head. "It's just... I saw a friend of my daughter's go in here, and I'm worried about him. The CPS agents said he would be moving in with us, but..." she trailed off.

An errant memory emerged from the recesses of Patrice's mind, and she grimaced as she realized who she was talking to. She holstered the gun and nodded, "All right. I think I saw him head out back, Mrs. Summers."

"How do you know my name?"

"That's... complicated," Patrice said hesitantly. _After all, how can I tell you that I was possessed by a demonic snake assassin hired to kill your daughter without sounding completely insane?_

Wordlessly, the pair of women made their way to the back yard, only to find a third woman at the gate.

"Rebecca Baxter," she introduced herself quietly, answering their unspoken questions. "My daughter's a friend of his, and I don't think we should interrupt right now," she added, gesturing into the back yard.

In the center of the back yard sat a redheaded teenager, holding Xander, who was sobbing in a crumpled heap, half in her lap. Scattered behind the redhead were the shattered and twisted remains of the Harris family refrigerator. It looked like it had been literally ripped apart through brute force.

The redhead looked up at them and surreptitiously waved them off, then turned her attention back to the young man in her arms.

"That's Willow," Joyce said quietly. "We should go. He'll need some time, and she'll keep him safe."

* * *

"Thanks, Will," Xander murmured, his voice raw. "I..."

"No matter what," she said, her fiercest Resolve Face on, "I will **always** be your Willow. Whatever happened in that other future, I won't let it happen in this one, you hear me?"

Xander stared at her for a long moment, then gave her a faint smile, "I hear you, Will." He extricated himself from her and stood up, and as she rose, he turned and said, "I think, Will, it's time you met someone."

She frowned, her forehead wrinkling in confusion, "Who?"

Xander closed his eyes and forced his will into his ring, sculpting every memory of her through it into the construct and giving it enough energy for a few hours. He opened his eyes and smiled faintly, "Willow, meet Marina. My fiancee."

Willow gaped, staring as the green construct of a beautiful woman extended a hand, "Hi. Xander's told me so much about you."

"Uhh, Xander..." Willow said hesitantly. "I've read Emerald Twilight, remember?"

"This is more like Circle of Fire," Xander replied.

"I'll probably last only a few hours," Marina said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. "But while I'm here, I'm real." She turned to Xander began shoving him toward the house with a giggle, "Now, off with you! Time for some girl talk."

"I'm not sure..." Willow said.

"He'll be fine," Marina assured her. "You got him through the worst of it." She looked back at the house and said distantly, "He loves you, you know. Not the way he loves me, but he loves you nonetheless. Whatever happens, that never changes."

* * *

Xander collapsed on the couch. It had been an exhausting day, and creating the construct of Marina had been draining, both emotionally and physically.

"Hey, kid."

He looked up, and his ring flared, "Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Whistler," the man said as he walked up and sat on the couch next to him. "I'm a-"

"Balance demon," Xander nodded, relaxing slightly. "Heard about you. You work for the Powers That Be."

"Yeah," Whistler nodded... then moved.

"Urk!" Xander's eyes widened as he doubled over, caught by surprise as the balance demon buried the blade in his gut.

"Sorry about this, kid," Whistler said sincerely. "I really am."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Well, how's that for a plot twist?

I'm quite impressed with how many people figured out I was referencing an event that happened in the comics thirteen years ago.

As for the references Willow and Xander were making... actually, I'm wondering if I actually need to put this in, considering how knowledgeable you readers seem to be about Green Lantern, but I guess it's better safe than sorry.

In Emerald Twilight, Hal Jordan used his ring to recreate the entire city of Coast City, including its seven million inhabitants, after it was destroyed by Mongul and Hank Henshaw. This only lasted a short while and was the beginning of Hal's fall from grace.

In Circle of Fire, Kyle Rayner was confronted by a sentient construct called Oblivion that he had subconsciously created when he first became Green Lantern, and he had subconsciously called for help in the form of constructs of six other Green Lanterns. Unlike Hal in Emerald Twilight, Kyle did not go insane/get possessed by Parallax.


	12. Chapter 11

Title: Emerald Spark (11/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Willow marched through the ruined wreckage of the army that had tried to stop him. They had been numerically superior, technologically advanced, well-equipped, well-trained, fanatically dedicated... and utterly doomed from the beginning. They had had no chance. She entered the central room and walked into the flow of energy from Xander's power rings, disrupting it.

The energy threw her to the ground, and a moment later, she stood up and blocked it again, clutching her side.

"You can't stop me," Xander said bluntly.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out," Willow said with a shrug. "But... where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life, Xander. World gonna end... where else would I want to be?"

"Is this the master plan?" he cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "You're going to stop me by telling me you love me? C'mon, Will, what worked on you isn't gonna work on me."

"Well, I was going to walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil, but..." she shrugged again, "your cartoon-fu beats mine any day of the week."

Her face turned serious, "I know you're hurting, Xander. I can't imagine how much you're hurting. And I know that, y'know, wiping out all life... not exactly the best idea you've had, but hey, what do I care? Still wanna hang. You're Xander."

"Don't call me that."

"First day of kindergarten," she said. "I cried because I broke the yellow crayon, and I was too afraid to tell anyone, but you were there, and you took the blame for me. You've come pretty far, ending all life in the galaxy, again, not one of your better ideas. But you know what? Yeah. I love you. I loved blame-taking Xander and I love... scary Parallax Xander. So if I'm going out, it's here. You wanna kill the galaxy? Fine, mister, but you start with me. I think I've earned that."

"You think I won't? This isn't like last time, Will. I'm a little bit better at following through than you are. Besides, I'm not just ending all life, I'm recreating it. This isn't a weapon, Will. It's a galactic Genesis Device."

"Then it'll be one hell of a ride, won't it? Either way, I'll still love you."

Xander tore his eyes away...

--Flash--

...and the vision shattered. He found himself floating in darkness. "That's not how it happened," he said raggedly.

"No," a voice said. "But it is what may happen."

He looked up and saw five figures, the closest of whom was...

"Ganthet?" he blinked. He looked at the other four and felt his neck hairs rise. Shazam. Highfather. Zeus. Phantom Stranger.

It was the Quintessence. Quite possibly the five most powerful beings in existence.

"Greetings, Alexander, Green Lantern of Sector Two-Eight-One-Four," Ganthet spoke.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Where am I?"

"A place between," Zeus answered.

Highfather nodded and said, "Our worlds are more closely linked than you realize, Protector of Man, and you walk in both worlds."

"You have changed what is and what will be," Shazam said. "You must see what is and what may be."

"How could this happen?" he demanded. "Why show me this?"

"We have only opened the window," Phantom Stranger said. "Beyond that is up to you. We cannot control what you see, nor can we predict how whatever you see may come to be."

--Flash--

"...and while this might be a bit presumptuous on my part, since the election's still a week away, I'd like to thank the Justice League on behalf of the people of New York."

"We were only doing our best, Mister Petrelli," Superman said, shaking the congressional candidate's hand. "We're just glad it was enough."

Xander stared. It was them. The Justice League.

Or **a** Justice League, anyway.

That was himself as Green Lantern. Obvious enough.

He looked at Superman. This man of steel seemed a bit shorter and skinnier -- and, of course, younger -- than the man Xander remembered from the other world.

The next person he studied was the Flash. This version of the scarlet speedster looked slightly overweight... and wore a sword strapped to his back?

Batman was wearing an all-too-familiar smirk. It took Xander a moment to place it, but once he did, he had to admit that, aside from that damned smirk, **that** man was perfect for the role.

There was a redhead present too, wearing the tuxedo, top hat, and fishnets of Zatanna, with a domino mask added to help conceal her identity. Xander couldn't quite identify her, but he was pretty sure it wasn't Willow behind that mask. Not with **those** legs.

There were three other shadowy figures standing with them, all female, but beyond the wing-shaped shadows on one that screamed "Hawknoun!" and a glint of gold and silver here and there on another that made him suspect that she was probably Wonder Woman, he couldn't make them out.

--Flash--

He was now in the high school library, and he was watching himself and Willow watching Buffy and Angel having a heart to heart.

"Personally, I think Angel's fooling himself by thinking he's actually in love with Buffy," the other him said.

"What makes you say that?" Willow frowned.

"Just like last time around," Xander shrugged, "he got his moment of happiness when he slept with Buffy. Not when she told him she loved him. Not when they kissed. When they screwed. Then, after killing a lot of people, including some friends of ours, he got cursed again and spent a century in hell. When he got back, though, she immediately forgave him, still loved him... and **that** didn't give him a moment of happiness."

Willow gaped at the implications.

"Think about that," he continued. "Imagine how you'd feel if, say, you skinned a man alive before turning him into a bonfire, sicced zombies on Buffy, nearly killed Giles, tried to kill me, and were trying to blow up the world, and at the end of the day, someone -- say, me -- loved you so much that he'd be happy to just be there with you when you blew it all up?"

Xander groaned at the other him's idiocy. He obviously wasn't thinking about what he was saying.

Willow's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and in a very small voice, she asked, "...I did all that?"

The other Xander started and looked at her, "No! Of course not! That was just a hypothetical example!"

"Translation: Yes, I did, and you're trying to keep from freaking me out."

"No, Will, it was hypothetical. And even if any of that actually did happen, that... that timeline doesn't exist. You aren't her, you haven't made her mistakes, and your first real spell won't be a vile, dark **curse**. **You** aren't responsible for -- or guilty of -- any of the **hypothetical** things I just tossed out."

Willow began to hyperventilate, "No, I'm okay. I can deal with this. I'm not hyperventilating. I'm not passing out. I'm okay."

She passed out.

"Good one, me," Xander snorted.

--Flash--

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of...

Well, it was space anyway. There was an enormous metal ring the size of a planet floating there, with a glowing, silvery, water-like substance suspended within it. Four gigantic starships that looked an awful lot like toilet bowls to Xander emerged.

Confronting them were several smaller starships... and hundreds of Green Lanterns, led by... himself.

"We hold the line!" the other him bellowed. "Nothing gets through!" His face twisted into a grim smile as he murmured, "Welcome to the Corps."

--Flash--

He found himself in the Summers' living room. He saw Joyce, Buffy, and himself there. Both of the teenagers were tense and alert.

"What... what is going on?" Joyce asked, utterly confused.

"It's really simple, Mom," the other him said, transforming into his uniform. "I'm Green Lantern, your daughter's Wonder Woman, she's dating a vampire, and we've got to go save the world."

Buffy scowled, "Did you have to mention Angel?"

"Angel?" Joyce blinked. "He's a vampire?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "He's also two hundred and seventy-something years old or twenty-six if you only count his mortal years."

Joyce frowned, "**Buffy**..."

"Can we do this later?" the Slayer asked. "We've got a world to save."

The two young heroes turned to leave, and Buffy whispered, "So... he's really twenty-six?"

"When he was turned, yeah."

"I've been dating an old guy?"

"Buffy, you **know** he's over two hundred years old. He's older than this country, and you're just figuring that out now?"

--Flash--

Xander stumbled as the torrent of images flashed by, faster and faster, until they overwhelmed him. When the flood stopped, he latched onto the first thought to enter his mind, "What the hell? Angelus lived long enough to get his soul back?"

"It is the intent of the Powers of this world," Phantom Stranger said. "Your death was never their purpose."

"Could've fooled me," Xander muttered. "That's why Whistler only stabbed me. To take me out of the picture long enough that I wouldn't dust Angelus before he got his soul back. And all those people he's going to kill are just collateral damage." He looked up, "What can I do to stop it?"

"Have you forgotten the first rule of the Green Lantern Corps?" Ganthet reprimanded him. "Willpower is everything."

* * *

Xander woke up.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

How do you like that? Had some neat scenes I couldn't use, along with some foreshadowing I wanted to do, so I stuck this in.

Did I fool anyone with the opening? Did any of you double-back to see if you'd missed a chapter somewhere?

And can you guess who the Leaguers are? Not counting Xander or the three shadowy figures, there are four characters from three shows, all of which are live-action American television series.


	13. Chapter 12

Title: Emerald Spark (12/?) 

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

"Visiting hours are over," Faith said. 

"Well, I'm pretty much family," the vampire shot back.

"Yeah?" she retorted. "Why don't you come back during the day? Oh, gee, no, I guess you can't."

"If I decide to walk into Harris's room, do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me?

Faith hesitated, then raised her right hand, clenched into a fist, "Actually? Yeah." The ring flashed with green energy, and she shot him a challenging look, "You saw what I did to the Judge. Care to try **your** luck?"

Angelus glared, then turned and stalked off, "Tell him I stopped by."

Faith breathed sigh of relief as the vampire disappeared around the corner. That had been... tense. She hadn't been able to find the power battery, and her power ring had been pretty much dead since she took care of the Judge.

She'd been bluffing him completely.

"So, what **did** you do to the Judge, Faith?"

She started, then spun, "Xander! You're awake!"

"Seems so," he said. "So, again, what'd you do to the Judge?"

"I, uh, used my ring," she said. "Ripped him to pieces and dropped his head and legs on Jupiter, his torso on Saturn, and his arms on Neptune. All that juice, I didn't know what it might do if I dropped him in the sun."

Xander nodded thoughtfully.

"Good job, poozer."

Faith blushed.

"Now, what have I missed? And could I get some water?"

* * *

"...and with you getting stabbed and Kendra gone missing-" 

"Kendra? Missing?" Xander interrupted. "What happened?"

"Spike and Drusilla captured her right around the time you were stabbed," Giles explained. Faith had called the Scooby Gang up, and after the first round of hugs, he had asked the others to wait outside while the Watcher filled him in on what had happened while he was comatose.

"Shit," Xander swore. "I should've-"

"There was nothing you could do," Giles said firmly. "She's all right, so don't start blaming yourself for it."

Xander relaxed, "So you rescued her in time."

"No."

"Huh?"

"They let her go," Giles said.

"That doesn't make any sense," Xander frowned. "Why?"

"All we know is what Kendra could report before she and Sam Zabuto returned to their post in Cleveland. She said that Drusilla convinced Spike to release her after she drank from her. She said that Drusilla said that it would make her kitten angry."

"She did, did she?" Xander blanched.

"Yes. Since then, she's apparently taken great pains to make sure her victims survived. The hospital has had a sharp jump in survivors from 'wild animal attacks' and 'barbecue fork accidents.'" Giles noted Xander's pallor and frowned in concern, "Are you all right? Do you know what that means? Angel had no idea."

"No," the young Green Lantern choked out. "Not a clue." He shook it off, "So who assembled the Judge?"

"Faith told you about that?"

"She may have mentioned it, yeah," Xander said. "So who put the Giant Atomic Smurf back together?"

"Spike," Giles said. "He appeared to be working alone. For whatever reason, he and Drusilla appear to have, ah, parted ways since Kendra was released."

Xander nodded, "Figures."

Giles frowned, "Wait. How did you know what color the Judge was?"

"Um... lucky guess?" he offered.

"You knew," Giles glowered. "You **knew** this would happen!"

"Yeah, I did," Xander said, glowering right back, "but seeing as how I had the power to handle it myself, and no one believed me about anything else anyway, I figured there wasn't much point bothering anyone else with it." He then shouldered past the Watcher and left the room before he could argue the point.

"Xander!" three voices echoed as Xander suddenly found himself tackled and pinned back up against the door by three bonecrushing hugs. He blinked. It was Faith, Tara, and Willow.

He said the first thing that came to mind.

Naturally, this involved a good taste of his foot.

"A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. The trifecta. Score!"

Tara blushed and backed off, though she didn't stop hugging him. Willow and Faith, for their part, thwapped him in unison.

"Ow!"

Willow took a deep breath, and Xander steeled himself for a Willow rant... only to have one ear deafened as Faith began berating him.

"What the hell were you doing?!" the other Green Lantern snarled. "How on Earth could you get yourself gutted like that?! For cryin' out loud, Xander! How the f--- could you let anyone get the drop on you like that, you f---ing moron?!"

"Erm, nice to know you care," he blinked dumbly.

She leaned in on him and hissed quietly, "And just what the hell did you expect us to do with you laid up like that, huh? You didn't even show me how to get the damned power battery. I was lucky I had enough juice to deal with Smurf Dredd and get back!"

"Smurf Dredd," Xander repeated and grinned. "I like- ow!" he broke off as she thwapped him again. Rubbing his head, he said, "And anyway, what's this about not teaching you how to get the battery? I'm sure I did..."

"No, you **didn't**!"

"Of course, I did!" he argued. "I had the schedule laid out in my head and everything! I was going to show you right after I checked out Oa!" He blinked, "Huh. I guess I **didn't** get around to that yet, did I?"

Thwap!

"OW! What was **that** for?" Xander sputtered, shooting a mock glare at the most recent thwapper.

"I d-d-didn't w-w-want to f-f-feel left out," Tara stammered, backing away from him. "I care about you too, you know."

"Hey," Xander said, holding his arms out. "C'mere." He pulled her into a comforting hug and began murmuring quietly into her ear.

Faith stared and leaned over to Willow, "Look at him. He just eats it up."

"He's Xander," Willow shrugged. "I've never found a more surefire way to get Xander snuggles."

"Hmm," Faith mused, "maybe I oughtta give it a try."

Willow stared at her, "You're not serious, are you?"

"What?" she challenged. "You think I can't do a scared little mouse routine?"

"Nope."

The door to Xander's room opened, and as Giles stepped out, Xander looked over his shoulder and asked, "Oh, by the way, Giles, got a question. Who's been paying the hospital while I was here?"

"Mrs. Summers," Giles replied. "She's at an art show in Los Angeles right now."

"Really?" Xander's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Why?"

"She's been given legal custody of you."

"Gah?"

* * *

It didn't take Xander long to find Angelus. He had made a mistake, though, going for the Crawford Street mansion at first, but it didn't take him long to realize his error, and he was back at the warehouse. 

And that's when the ring's power flickered.

"What the hell?" he muttered. "Ring, explain power loss."

"Defensive measures were taken to protect bearer from hostile attack," it chirped. "Threat was identified as Der Kindestod, designated by Corps for termination for child murder, and neutralized."

He heaved a sigh. Well, that was one less thing to worry about. As the senior Green Lantern, Xander held the authority over the Corps as a whole, and he'd mentally listed all possible opponents that would need slaying in the near future, including Der Kindestod. Unlike in the comics, the power rings were not restricted from killing unless the target was helpless. Now, though, it meant he'd have to confront the master vampire the old-fashioned way. He found a wooden crate and broke off a makeshift stake, then carefully slipped into the warehouse, listening to the sounds of metal clashing against metal.

There they were. Buffy and Angelus, dueling with swords.

"You don't attack my friends," Buffy declared.

"Oh, please," Angelus sneered. "You can't kill me. You had a perfect shot at the mall, and you couldn't do it. You really think you've had enough time?" he taunted.

"She won't need it."

Buffy blinked as Angelus suddenly crumbled to dust in front of her. Behind him was...

"Xander!" she dropped the sword and hugged him, then pulled back. "Why did you do that?"

"You know it had to be done, Buffy," he replied.

"I should have been the one to do it!"

"Yes," he nodded solemnly. "You should have. But how long would it have taken you to do it, Buffy? Do you know? I do. Forty-two dead, including Miss Calender and Kendra. Willow in a coma, me with a concussion, Giles tortured, your mother threatened, and the world about to end. That is what it took before you were willing to end it last time, Buffy."

"That was last time!"

"And I made sure it wasn't going to be this time." He turned away and added quietly, "Besides, I made a promise, Buffy. I made two promises."

* * *

Author's Postscript: 

Ahem, the two promises, in case anyone forgot, are:

"You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there"  
--Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2.18 Killed By Death

"Fine, but if you lose your soul, Deadboy, I'm going to dust you"  
"Promise"  
"Cross my heart"  
--Emerald Spark, Chapter Three

And I cannot stress enough that if you like my BtVS/DC crossovers, you really need to read Cobra's Journey of a Hero.


	14. Chapter 13

Title: Emerald Spark (13/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Jenny Calender, aka Janna Kalderash, sat on the suitcase and forced the zipper shut. She took one last look around her modest apartment, then sighed.

"So, that's it?" came a disdainful voice from the door. She whirled around in surprise.

It was Xander. He was leaning against the door, arms folded. He straightened up and elaborated, "You've failed your mission, and now, you're just going to leave? Is that it?"

"What do you care?" she glowered at him.

"I don't," he said bluntly. "But Giles does, and I very much care about ol' Ripper. He's been like a father to me, in both my lives."

"Is that what this is all about?" she snorted. "When Angel lost his soul, it became pretty obvious no one wanted me around, not even Rupert."

"You know that's not true."

"Maybe," she hedged, "but **you** obviously don't want me around. Ever since Halloween, you've been giving me the cold shoulder."

"Can you blame me?" he demanded, stepping forward. "You knew! You were here to make sure that damned curse wasn't broken! That was your whole mission here, and you blew it!" He got in her face and snarled, "When I told everyone after Halloween, you could've backed me up. You could've kept all this mess from happening. Now, Buffy's heart's practically been ripped out, Giles feels betrayed, and we're short one vampire who **used** to be on our side!"

"Is that what you think?" she whispered. "You think I knew about the clause? About how the curse could be broken?"

"It's why you're here to begin with, isn't it?"

She shook her head, "I didn't know. I was just supposed to keep him from being happy, to keep them apart. I thought it was to make sure he suffered. My clan didn't see fit to tell me until the night it happened."

Xander felt most of his anger drain away.

Most of it.

"So, instead of stepping up and trying to make up for it, you're just gonna slink away in disgrace," he snorted. "Yeah, real admirable."

"You think I **want** to go?" she snorted right back with a bitter chuckle. "I failed. I failed miserably, and people died for it, including my uncle. This was one of the most important tasks for my clan, and I failed. Do you have any idea what's waiting for me there?"

"So don't go."

"But... my family-"

"To hell with your family," he said. He paused and amended, "Not literally, mind you. It's that kind of mentality that got us into this mess to begin with." He shook his head and said, "You don't want to go, so don't go. It's as simple as that. You're a grown woman. You can make your own decisions. And if they have a problem with that, we've got the most powerful weapons in the universe with which to make it stick."

"What?" she looked at him in confusion. "What weapons?"

He blinked, "You mean you weren't there when... no, you wouldn't have been, would you? Um, awkward."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's just say that what was used to take out the Judge will work just fine against your family, and it won't kill anyone if we don't want it to."

* * *

"So, are there any other future events we should be aware of, Xander?" Giles asked, holding up a notebook and pen. They were gathered in the library, sans Buffy, who had excused herself for patrol when Xander arrived.

Xander shook his head, "Not for a while, really. There isn't much that happened over the next few months that wasn't caused by... waitaminute, waitaminute, waitaminute. Where's Oz?"

"Oz?" Willow frowned.

"Yeah, Will," he nodded. "You know, your boyfriend?"

"I have a boyfriend?"

"Umm..." Xander blinked at her, "...**yeeesss**. You invited him to Buffy's surprise birthday party... didn't you?"

"Um, nooo..." the redhead shook her head.

"Oh," Xander blinked again, then shook his head. "Okay, what else did I miss while I was out?"

"Uhh," Faith broke in, "wouldn't that be something you'd have to tell us? We can't tell you what **didn't** happen if we don't know it was supposed to." She frowned, "Can we?"

"No, I guess not," Xander deflated. "Okay, has Ted shown up yet?"

"That was before Buffy's birthday," Tara replied.

"Uhh, what about the mind control eggs?"

"After Ted," Giles answered.

"Okay, okay," Xander muttered. "What was next? Uh, Ms. Calendar's still alive -- just saw her last night -- so that obviously hasn't happened yet..." He looked up, "Crap. Full moon's this week, isn't it?"

* * *

It was a meeting of like minds. They had talked about forming a club before, but this was the first true club meeting. They had refrained from doing anything remotely official out of respect and concern for Xander's welfare as he lay in a coma from the gut wound he had mysteriously received that night so long ago.

But now he was okay.

The first official meeting of the We Love That Big Dumb Poopy Head Club was in session.

"S-so, what now?" the Vice President Tara Baxter nee Maclay asked, looking around for suggestions.

"Okay, so, he's an idiot," Treasurer Faith Lehane shrugged. "Subtle hints don't work. **Obvious** hints don't work. Climbing into his bed wearing nothing but a smile doesn't work. Trust me, I've tried."

"You WHAT?!" President Willow Rosenberg blurted out.

Faith waved it off, "It was when he was in that coma. I was hoping it would wake him up. Way I figure it, if we're gonna get him, we should get our lesbo groove on and invite him to join in. I'm willing to share, and no straight guy can resist hot lesbian action."

The other two stared at her, jaws dropping.

* * *

Author's Note:

Deliciously ironic, yet totally in-character, wouldn't you agree?

* * *

"Buffy," the voice echoed through the silence of the cemetary.

The Slayer stopped dead in her tracks at the voice from behind. "You have nothing to say that I want to hear," she declared.

Behind her, Xander flinched. He'd been expecting that sort of reaction, but it didn't make it any easier. "Buffy, I'm telling your mother about the ring."

"**What?!**" She spun and stalked up to him, "Not enough you kill my boyfriend, you've got to ruin my home life too?!" Her hands came up, halfway reaching for his throat before stopping, clutching the air in throttling motions.

"Your mother's been given custody of me," he said quietly, ignoring the implied threat. "I'm not going to tell her about the whole Slayer thing, but I'm not going to hide my responsibilities from her either."

"Shut up," she said coldly. "Just... shut up. Tell her whatever you want, Xander. I'm beyond caring now." She clenched her fists and whirled away, barely able to keep herself from breaking his face.

"I know how you must feel right now, Buffy," he called out. "Believe me, I understand."

"How?" she retorted over her shoulder. "How could you **possibly** claim to understand?! You killed him! If you knew how I feel right now, why did you do it?!"

"Because I've been there!" he snarled. "Because you shoved a sword through my fiancee's heart!"

That stopped her in her tracks, and she turned back around again, "What? When?"

"Four and a half years after you did the same to Angel and sent him to hell for a hundred years," he answered bitterly. "Four and a half years after Willow cast a spell for **your boyfriend** that led to her nearly destroying the world."

"Wh-what?" she sputtered, stepping back.

"The spell that gave Angel his soul was a **curse**, Buffy," he reminded her, stepping forward relentlessly. "Vile, dark magic, crafted for vengeance and fueled by hate. It was made to make him **suffer**, and suffer he did. And suffer he would if we did it to him again. More than that, it corrupted Will, slowly but surely, and she nearly destroyed the world before it was all over."

"N-... no," she shook her head. "You're wrong."

"Am I?" he asked, tilting his head. "Think about it, Buffy. How many vampires have you killed? Dozens? Hundreds? And you enjoyed it, didn't you? Imagine if all those vampires had been humans instead. Imagine having that much blood on your hands, never being able to see the sun, doomed to watch everyone you care about age and die... and never being able to find happiness without unleashing the monster that did that again. Imagine living that kind of life for a possible eternity. That's what Angel would have faced... was facing. Which is better? That? Or a quick, clean dusting when his soul wasn't even around to feel it?"

"Xander, I..." she hesitated, "...I just... I can't..."

He looked at her sorrowfully and sighed, closing his eyes.

"Let me tell you about a woman named Anya Jenkins."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Some pretty heavy dialogue there.


	15. Chapter 14

Title: Emerald Spark (14/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link. Plus, archived at .net/u/62966 or .net/~cyclone

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Joyce Summers stirred. _What happened?_ she wondered. She remembered talking to Xander, him talking some nonsense about magic and hell and... Green Lantern. And then... and then...

"Ah, you're awake," he said. "Just in time. Ever see the sunrise on Mars?"

"What?" she sputtered, her eyes fluttering open. She looked around. There was red rocks and sand everywhere... and the sky was yellow, though a lot of it was obscured by faint greenish tinge...

"Oh, my God," she gaped at Xander, who stood in uniform, mask, ring, and all. She followed his gaze, and her breath caught before she could start hyperventilating. The sun's rays were just poking over the horizon, creating a brilliant display of colors she had never seen before.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said with a nostalgic smile. "The colors are from crystal dust suspended in the air when a meteor shattered and exploded from the heat and stress of atmospheric entry. It's usually not this brilliant." He shot her a concerned look, "You aren't going to faint again, are you?"

"I don't know," she said honestly. "What... what's going on?"

Xander sighed and prepared The Speech.

"The world is older than you know..."

* * *

Joyce was silent when Xander had finished his explanation. Demons, vampires, magic, Halloween. He had carefully **not** mentioned anything about Slayers.

"Well, you're taking this rather well," Xander commented.

"Why?" she looked at him. "Because I haven't fainted again yet? Because believe me, I'm considering it."

"No," he shook his head. "Because you aren't going hysterical or accusing me of lying or being insane." He paused, then gestured behind her, "By the way, I brought sandwiches if you're hungry."

Joyce blinked and looked behind her. There was a picnic basket, and sure enough, there were sandwiches inside. She looked at him, "Do you plan for everything?"

"Do you see a bat symbol on this costume?" he snorted.

Her eyes widened, "You mean you've met...?"

"I don't think so," he shrugged. "Magic's funny that way, but I certainly **remember** meeting him. In the Batcave. Without an invitation. He didn't seem to find it as amusing as I did."

"You didn't," she said. "You **did!**" She began to giggle. She was familiar with the character and could well imagine what his reaction would have been.

"Well, what do you expect?" he shrugged. "It's not like I was ever going to **get** an invitation, and I couldn't let a chance to see the Batcave just slip by like that."

"How'd you get in?"

"Well, it turns out, the whole tip-the-bust-and-go-down-the-Batpole thing was a wash, but there was this old grandfather clock in his study..."

* * *

Joyce was still wrapping her head around what Xander had told her while he flew them back to Earth. So it took a lot to pull her from her thoughts.

Like... what she saw right now, just before they re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

"Xander?"

"Hmm?" he turned to look at her.

She pointed, "What's that?"

Xander halted their descent and turned to look, frowning at the two floating pyramids. Space junk, that was **not**. "Ring, scan and identify."

"Goa'uld ha'tak-class cruisers," the ring chirped. "Scanning for life signs. Scan complete. Total life signs on both ships: two thousand, one hundred, and ninety-six Jaffa; two thousand, one hundred, and ninety-eight goa'uld; five humans. Note: Two thousand, one hundred, and ninety-six of the goa'uld are still in the larval stage."

A cold chill ran down Xander's spine as he remembered what the ring had said before about the goa'uld. He didn't have **time**. Those two alien warships were in orbit, already in position to bomb the hell out of North America.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Summers," he said apologetically before flying to confront the two ships.

"Attention, ha'tak-class cruisers, this is Green Lantern Two Eight One Four. You are orbiting a Class Five planet in violation of galactic law. This planet is under the protection of the Green Lantern Corps. Power down your weapons and shields and depart immediately or face the consequences."

* * *

Aboard one of the ha'tak-class cruisers, SG-1's commanding officer **stared** at his radio in disbelief. He looked up, "Daniel?"

The team's linguistics specialist was just as baffled.

"Did he just say what I **think** he said?"

"Ah, depends," Dr. Daniel Jackson replied. "Do you think he just claimed to be a Green Lantern and told Apophis to pack up and go home like a good little boy?"

"I thought it was more like a dog running home with its tail between its legs."

Bra'tac looked at them both, "What is this 'Green Lantern' you speak of?"

"They speak of the Stellar Sentinels," Teal'c replied immediately.

"What?" everyone else chorused, staring at him.

* * *

As Xander moved the bubble construct to the dodge the yellow -- why did it **always** have to be yellow? -- energy blasts, he shook his head, "Why do they **always** have to do it the hard way?"

Unnoticed by Xander, a pair of USAF warheads drifted toward the two pyramid-shaped ships. Unnoticed, that is, until they detonated.

"What the holy f*cking hell was that?!"

"Language!" Joyce scolded.

"Sorry, Mrs. S," he flushed. He shook it off, "It's time to finish this." As he focused, the spherical bubble changed shape, melding into a conical cylinder, complete with seats on the interior. With five-point safety belts.

"Buckle up."

Realizing what was about to happen, Joyce paled, grabbed the ephemeral seat belts that appeared, and quickly strapped herself in.

"CHEEE-ARRRGE!"

Honestly, though, she felt the gigantic construct replica of the USS Missouri was a bit pointless.

* * *

"Jack?" Daniel said hesitantly.

"What?" the colonel groused.

Daniel pointed out the viewport, "Is that the Missouri?"

Jack stared, "I think it is. Carter? Check this out. Are we seeing things?"

Samantha Carter joined in the staring, "Is that a **green** Missouri firing a **green** shell? At **us**?"

"...yeahsureyoubetcha. Take cover!" Jack ordered, matching actions to words as he dove for cover along with everyone else.

"Someone has a rotten sense of humor," Jack growled as the dust settled from the impact.

"People say the same thing about you, Jack."

"This is different, Daniel!"

"That is **not** a sixteen-inch shell," Sam muttered, and Jack looked up.

A giant glowing green... well... bullet was the best word he could think of, was hovering just inches away from the back wall of the pel'tak, across from the viewport that it had crashed through. Thankfully, the force field that normally kept the air from escaping the pel'tak through said viewport had resealed itself to continue its job, or they'd be having a hard time breathing. Hissing sounded as a door opened up in the side, letting air escape from the pressurized interior.

And a Green Lantern stepped out.

"You guys look like you could use a lift."

Everyone stared. Even Bra'tac.

The Green Lantern/Stellar Sentinel looked around and scowled, "Geez, what's with all the gold? Talk about ego."

"No," Bra'tac said, shaking his head, "the false gods treasure gold for its value against you, Sentinel."

"Wait," Jack broke in, "you mean all that gold **isn't** because they're a bunch of egomaniacs?"

"I guess it's not **just** because they're a bunch of egomaniacs," Daniel shrugged.

"So, any suggestions on how to blow these two ships up and go home?" Green Lantern asked. "Or would you rather take one with you?"

Jack's face lit up. "I'll take door number two, Monty!"

"Sir!"

"Jack!"

"ColonelO'Neill!"

"Haa'shak!"

Xander blinked at the response, then looked at the colonel, "So, you're Colonel Jack 'Haa'shak' O'Neill? Why 'sheep' for a nickname? Something I should be aware of? Or is that one of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' things?"

Whap!

Xander scowled at Mrs. Summers and rubbed the back of his head. "Ow, hey! It's a valid question!"

"Xa- **Hal**, maybe for later... like when we're on the **ground?!**" she snapped.

"We **are** on the ground... er... a deck... hey, it's close enough for government work!"

Jack frowned, "Isn't X'Hal female?"

"It's Hal," Xander glowered. "Hal Jordan."

"Yeahsureyoubetcha," Jack said skeptically.

"I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson," the archaeologist said, breaking through the inanity and extending a hand. "This is Captain Doctor Samantha Carter, Teal'c, and Bra'tac."

"A pleasure," Xander nodded, taking Daniel's hand and giving it a firm shake. He also shook hands with the Captain Doctor, and moved to greet the two (his ring quietly informed him) Jaffa.

"It is an honor to meet you, Sentinel," Teal'c bowed his head as they shook hands...

...and were promptly interrupted by an explosion that sent the entire ship shaking.

"Oh, yeah," Xander muttered. "Forgot about the other ship. Be right back."

He flew back out through the viewport.

Everyone stared after him for a moment.

Jack looked at the woman the Green Lantern had brought on board, "So... come here often?"

He tried to ignore the explosions coming from the other ship. And Sam's ranting about how they should **not** be able to hear said explosions.

He figured it was something best not dwelt on. The Brig wasn't going to believe this anyway.

* * *

"You took her to Mars?" Buffy glared at Xander. They were back in school, and the two were in the process of slowly repairing their friendship. That they were now effectively siblings -- thanks to CPS actually paying attention -- made this a necessity.

"Well, I figured I had to do something drastic to break through that Sunnydale Syndrome," Xander said with a shrug.

"You took her to **Mars**?" she repeated.

"I just **said** that, didn't I?" he looked at her strangely.

She pouted, "How come I don't get to go to Mars?"

Xander stumbled a moment in surprise, then decided the comment about going to Mars being nothing compared to the asteroid mining he took Faith on was probably a bad idea. While searching for something to say, he saw a face he never expected to see again in his life.

"Ahn?"

* * *

Author's Postscript:

This is not the SGC you think it is.


	16. Chapter 15

Title: Emerald Spark (15/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Okay, y'know, the reason Blackest Night was originally a one-shot was because I saw only two ways to expand on it: Green Lantern Xander and Future Knowledge Xander. Both of them had already been done and done well by others, and I didn't want to retread ground already covered, so I intended to leave it as is.

Then I got this idea.

* * *

Anyanka, Vengeance Demon, Patron Saint of Scorned Women, was faced with a puzzle. She had come here, to this high school that sat oh so conveniently on a hellmouth, to grant a wish. Specifically, the wish of one Harmony Kendall, who had just been dumped rather publicly by one Lawrence Blaisdell. One wish later, and Larry was now playing for the other team. That had been simple. Business as usual, if less violent and bloodthirsty than most wishes.

No, the puzzle was in the male who had seen her moments after she'd granted the wish. The male who she had never met yet apparently knew her name, despite her thoroughness in eliminating that possibility over the past millenium. But that wasn't the real puzzle. No, the puzzle was in the way he looked at her. There was something in his eyes that made her heart pound and her stomach flutter.

She was a vengeance demon. She could sense emotions. It was part of her gig. But what she sensed from him made no sense whatsoever.

Love. Loss. Heartbreak.

In a **male**. Directed at **her**.

_This..._ she thought as she rounded the corner and teleported away, _...bears investigation._

* * *

Xander bolted around the corner and looked around, scanning the area. _Damn. Lost her,_ he thought with a frown. _Stay focused, Xand. That wasn't Ahn, your ex-fiancee. That was Anyanka, man-hating vengeance demon..._ he reminded himself.

_So what the hell was she **doing** here?_

Giving the area another visual scan, he shook his head and headed back to where he had left Buffy, a pensive look on his face. He blinked in surprise at seeing Buffy talking to a dark-haired girl he didn't recognize but who looked vaguely familiar...

"See you tomorrow, Buffy!"

"Sure!" the Slayer chirped cheerfully, waving her off.

Xander walked up and watched the brunette leave, "Um, who was that?"

"Theresa," Buffy replied. "Theresa Klusmeyer. She's my partner in that self-defense class they made us take after the attacks last night. Speaking of which, I thought you were going to take care of our werewolf problem?"

"With the imminent alien invasion, I got a little distracted," he said dryly. His gaze strayed to where Theresa had gone, and he murmured, "I hope things turn out better for her this time around..."

Buffy shot him a Look, "Why? What happened last time?"

He shrugged, "Angelus turned her. Tonight."

"Oh," she blanched. Then something else he said finally registered, "Wait. **What** alien invasion?"

"Just something I ran into on the way back from Mars," he said, waving it off, his mind clearly preoccupied.

"So, wait," she said, her voice dangerously calm, "you mean you took **my mom** into a **warzone?**"

"Err... yes?"

* * *

Tara and Willow were sitting together, making study arrangements for that evening, when Xander bolted toward them and vaulted over the table in front of them.

"Get back here, you moron!" Buffy screeched, following him without hesitation.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

"I... don't think I want to know," Tara murmured, a little shocked.

Willow nodded, equally stunned, "Right there with you."

* * *

Faith looked up as the door opened. She was waiting for a training session in the abandoned mansion on Crawford Street that Xander had turned into his temporary headquarters.

"Geez, X, what happened to you?" Faith blurted out. "You look like you got hit by a truck."

"Trust me, a truck would have hurt less," he said sourly. "Just forget it. You remember what to do."

Faith nodded, then focused hard on a blank section of the wall. Sweat formed a slight sheen across her forehead as she concentrated, glaring at it in futility. Her power ring flared, and she stumbled back, her concentration broken.

"Damn it!"

"Stop trying to force it," Xander said lightly. "You didn't put it there, so it doesn't recognize you. The more you force it, the more it'll resist you. It's a security measure. You have to be..." he searched for the right word, "...polite."

"It's a f*cking lantern!" she glared at him.

"One with literally as much power as you can possibly imagine," Xander said evenly. "It takes more than brute force, Faith, and you're still not grasping the dimensional theory behind the subspace pocket."

"I f*cking hate math."

* * *

"I think I understand it now," Faith said, breathing heavily from the mental exertion as they returned to the home she shared with the Baxters. Xander had made her retrieve and stow the power battery a dozen times -- and stowed it himself for her to retrieve it a dozen more -- before he was satisfied. "Thank you, sensei."

Xander blinked in confusion, "What... did you just call me, poozer?"

"'Sensei,'" she repeated.

"Okayyy..." Xander said, still not getting it. "Why 'sensei'?"

Faith shrugged, "Can't really just use your name -- whole secret identity thing -- and we're both Green Lanterns, so that'd be silly. We're not colleagues yet, but I don't exactly work for you either, so that leaves out 'boss.' You **are** training me, but there's no way in hell I'm calling you 'master,' so 'sensei' it is."

"Okay," he nodded, turning it over in his head for a moment. "Works for me... padawan."

"Huh?" she blinked at him as they entered the living room, where Willow and Tara were studying.

Xander shot the two on the couch a faint smile as they looked up and waved, then turned his attention back to Faith and shrugged, "That'll make sense in about a year, when Crapisode One comes out."

"Didn't like the movie, I take it?"

"No one liked the movie," Xander snorted. "There were **Trekkies** offering their condolences."

"So... why don't you do something about it?"

"Two reasons. One, I'm afraid that if I did, they'd find some way to make it even worse, as impossible as that idea seems to me. Two, if I don't do anything to change it, I won't feel compelled to go see what changes I may have caused, thus keeping me from being scarred for life yet again."

Willow looked up at him, leaned toward Tara, and stage-whispered, "Beware the Xander-logic. You can see how frightening it is."

Xander frowned, then a glowing green hand tweaked her nose.

"Hey!"

He stuck his tongue out at the redhead.

Tara giggled, and he shot the blonde witch a warm smile. She flushed and looked away. Xander was glad to see them all getting along so well, especially Willow and Tara. It was a long way from the love they shared last time, but he had no doubt that that would come in time. No, the real surprise was the way they acted around Faith. They liked her, trusted her. More than that, they had accepted her as one of their own, something which the Willow he remembered -- that strange, white goddess with Willow's face -- never would have.

_Damn, it's good to have my Willow back,_ he thought fondly.

"AHH!!!" Willow shrieked and nearly jumped out of her skin as a glowing green Xander hugged her from behind. Hyperventilating, she glared at the real Xander, "What the hell was that for?!"

He shrugged and dismissed the construct, "Just felt like hugging you, and I was too lazy to walk over there."

Willow glowered, "Faith? If you would, please?"

"Sure, Red."

Thwap!

"Thank you, Faith," the redhead smiled sweetly at her.

Xander scowled and rubbed his head, then shot Tara a pleading look, "Tara? Please?"

She blinked back at him, then gave him a look that was somehow both apologetic and impish, "No, I don't think so."

"Traitor," he pouted.

* * *

Daniel Osbourne stirred.

"'Bout time you woke up, Wolfboy."

He looked around. He was in a cave, one with a rather large boulder resting conspicuously near the entrance. Leaning against said boulder was a familiar figure. Not that he had ever met the younger man, but given his latest obsession, he couldn't have avoided seeing him if he'd tried.

"I know you."

Xander straightened up and shook his head, his expression hard, "No. You really don't."

"What's going on?"

"You're a werewolf," Xander said bluntly. "Three nights a month, you get hairy and slobber a lot. I caught you before you could eat anyone and sealed you up in here for the night. You've got one more night this month."

"Huh."

Xander turned to leave, then paused.

"Oh," he said over his shoulder, "and about Willow, just so you know, she's like a sister to me, and if you hurt her, I'll beat you to death with a shovel. After beating you **half** to death with a shovel, giving you time to wake up, and then using the shovel's blade to perform several amputations. Capiche?"

"...'kay."

Xander nodded, then continued on his way. He had one more stop to make.

* * *

It had taken Xander some time to track down Carl Marin's laboratory. The man was a genius when it came to biochemistry and genetics. Why he was content to coach a swim team -- turning said swim team into his own lab rats -- was beyond Xander's comprehension.

For a change, the lab was **not** in one of Sunnydale's numerous abandoned warehouses. Instead, it was in an abandoned hotel near the docks. It hadn't taken much to set the whole room alight. The notes were already so much tinder, and the chemicals would be destroyed long before FDS arrived.

"NO!"

"Wha-?" Xander turned...

WHAM!

...and rocked back from Coach Marin's haymaker even as the swim team coach shouldered past him and ran into the lab. Xander turned, "No, wait! I..."

BOOM!

The fire must have spread faster than he had expected and reached one of the fertilizer bombs he had laid, or maybe the chemicals were more volatile than he had anticipated. Either way, Xander barely managed to use his ring to shield himself before the explosion shattered the building.

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Hope you enjoyed it.


	17. Chapter 16

Title: Emerald Spark (16/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: For the next few chapters, the pace is going to pick up a bit as things on a larger scale start falling into place.

* * *

Xander entered the house, his thoughts on Coach Marin. Why on Earth did he have such a foreboding feeling about what had happened? He'd have to be careful. His instincts were usually pretty reliable.

"And where have you been, young man?"

Xander jerked his head up in surprise, then relaxed when he saw Rebecca Baxter standing across the room, hands on her hips.

"Dealing with a situation, why?"

"Mrs. Summers has been worried sick."

"Why would she...?" Xander blinked, then remembered. "Oh, yeah. Oops."

"'Oops' indeed," she glowered. Beneath the stern expression, a twinkle glittered in her eyes, "So, when are you going to ask my daughter out?"

"Bwa-huh?"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed the way she's looked at you, Alexander," she cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"Um... no, I haven't?" he said, blinking in surprise.

Rebecca sighed. "Try and look at this from her point of view, Alexander," she said, moving to sit on the couch. "She's seventeen, never got out much, and her father and brother aren't what you'd call prize specimens. Now, out of the blue, this real-live superhero who's strong and brave -- and not unattractive I might add --" she paused, giving his body a frankly appraising stare that set fire to his cheeks, "swoops in like a fairy tale Prince Charming and carries her off to what might as well be a castle."

"Just one problem with that," Xander said, holding up his index finger as he tried to force the blood elsewhere... and not the **other** elsewhere further south it was tending toward.

"What's that?"

Xander looked away, "I **really** don't want to be the one to tell you this, but Tara's... um... a lesbian."

Rebecca blinked. "What?"

"Yeah," Xander nodded.

Rebecca frowned, "You know her father and brother aren't exactly stellar examples of your gender..."

"Don't!" Xander interrupted, looking back at her, eyes ablaze. "Don't give me that nature/nurture crap, Rebecca. She went to school. She could have found plenty of nice guys. But she never looked. When they were together, she and her girlfriend were two of the happiest people I ever knew. I will **not** deny them that. I love them both too much to do that to them. **Either** of them."

With that, he stormed out.

Rebecca slumped back into the couch and muttered, "Well... that could have gone better." She sighed and forced herself back to her feet. She had better call Joyce and let her know he was probably heading home now.

* * *

Xander was pensive as he paced the Summers living room like a caged tiger, trying to sort through what had happened. On the couch, Miss Calendar nursed a cup of coffee. And tried to ignore the glowing green tiger pacing along with him.

"So," she said, "what do we do now?"

He pursed his lips. She had been kidnapped, woken up strapped to a table. If it hadn't been for her magic, who knew what would have happened? She'd freed herself, stunned her captors, and fled. She found him, and they'd just returned from where they had held her... after placing a quick memory spell and tracking spell on them.

"I recognized one of them," he said. "The one with the horn-rimmed glasses; his name's Noah Butler."

"You know him?"

"I thought I did," he said grimly. "We mistook his daughter for a Slayer after... well, after. I **know** he's not Initiative..." He stopped and pivoted to look at her, "Dig."

"What?"

"They're looking for people with powers, you said. Who's to say they won't go after Buffy or Tara? Or Willow, for that matter? She can be a very strong witch," he elaborated. "I need to know. Everything. Who they work for, what they know, why they're doing this."

Jenny shook her head, "I can't **do** that with my computer, Xander."

"Tell me what you need to work your magic," he said with a smirk, "and I'll work mine. Money is no object."

He could always mine more platinum, after all.

"By the way," Jenny gave him a quizzical look, "why did you drop them off in Delaware?"

He shrugged, "Just playing a hunch."

* * *

On the side of a highway, Noah Bennet stirred. Clutching his head as he looked around, he murmured, "That could have gone better."

The Haitian nodded.

Bennet frowned, "What happened?" He remembered they were on a mission, but the rest was a fuzzy blur. "Did you wipe me?" he asked, shooting his partner a suspicious look.

The Haitian shook his head.

Bennet looked up at the sign above them. It read "Welcome to Blue Cove."

"Weren't we in California?"

He paused as another fact registered.

"And what happened to our clothes?"

* * *

Author's Note:

Just as a side note, all the events of Heroes are being pushed up by four years, so the events of the series would mostly take place in 2002 rather than 2006.

* * *

Giles found him in the library.

"Good Lord!" he blurted out in surprise at the sight before him. There were two boxes full of electronic components, three white boards with so much written on them in such small print, he would have to be right up next to it to read it. Three empty coffee pots were scattered around the room, along with a fourth one brewing in a Mr. Coffee on the counter. Stacks of notebooks and loose paper covered just about every square inch of the tables and chairs.

A haggard-looking Xander was standing in front of the white boards, studying them and adding marks and notes every few seconds, but he turned and gave Giles a bleary-eyed look.

"Oh, hey, G-man," he said with a tired wave. "What are you doing here? I thought you were locking up for the weekend."

"'The weekend'?" Giles stared at him in disbelief. "Xander, it's Monday morning. When was the last time you got any sleep?"

"Monday?" he blinked. "Fascinating. I seem to have lost a couple of days somewhere..."

"You mean you've been here since Saturday?!"

"Friday night, actually," he admitted. "Hey!" he said defensively. "You saw the shit that went down because I was out of commission." He gestured at the documents surrounding him, "This is my contingency plan."

"And you can make sense of this?" Giles asked after picking up one of the notebooks and leafing through it. The scribbles and scrawls were nearly illegible.

"Yeah," Xander nodded.

"And if **we** cannot?" Giles arched an eyebrow.

"I'm... working on that part," Xander said with a shrug.

"Not like this, you're not," the Watcher said acidly. "And what about Mrs. Summers? She must be worried sick!"

Xander snorted, "No one's ever paid attention to me before, and she's overlooked Buffy going out on nightly patrol for two years running. What makes you think she'd even notice? I love that woman, but she's not exactly the most observant person in the world."

"How about the fact that she almost filed a missing persons report?! Or that Buffy's been combing the graveyards and warehouse district for you for the past two days?!" Giles practically exploded.

"She... what?" Xander blinked in bewilderment. That pause was all it took for the exhaustion to finally catch up.

His eyes rolled up, and he collapsed.

* * *

"OhmyGod,isheallright?!" a redheaded blur demanded as it rushed into the hospital room.

"He's fine, just exhausted," the doctor said. He shot Mrs. Summers a withering look, "Look, whatever he was working on, it can't be that important. He's been running on nothing but caffeine and adrenaline for at least half a day. He needs at least a week's bed rest."

Buffy cracked her knuckles. "Oh, he'll get it, all right," she said with a look of fierce determination on her face. The doctor almost chuckled.

"Hey, B," Faith interjected, "don't break anything, mm'kay?" She then added sensuously, "I'd kind of like to have **all** his body parts intact when he's all rested up. I've got plans for 'em."

"Faith!" Willow screeched.

"Okay, ew," Buffy said. "That was **way** more than I needed to know."

Faith smirked as she shrugged, "Hey, just sayin', ya know? Don't break it if you ain't gonna buy it. Or even take it out for a test drive."

"Faith!" Willow screeched again.

"Faith, you know I can hear you, right?"

The doctor stared at his patient. The young man shouldn't even be capable of **dreaming**, let alone waking up!

"Hey, stud," Faith grinned. "How's tricks?"

"For kids," Xander deadpanned, then sighed and gave up trying to sit back up. It wasn't worth the effort to deal with this.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Joyce Summers asked acidly. As far as she was concerned, he was still grounded, with exceptions only for saving the world, for that stunt he'd pulled last week. She still had trouble wrapping her head around that.

"I have some things I need to check into off-planet," Xander replied. He'd already made arrangements, including topping off the charge in Faith's power ring, as he would be taking the power battery with him. He only had one more stop left to make.

"You're grounded, remember?"

He looked at her, "One of those things I need to check into has the ability to wipe out all life in the galaxy. I think this counts as world save-age."

Joyce scowled, "When will you be back?"

"Dunno exactly," he shrugged. "A week, maybe two. Three on the outside."

"What about school?"

"What **about** school?"

"You can't just **leave** for a week or two!" she snapped, exasperated. "You'll get expelled!"

"Somehow, I doubt that," Xander replied cryptically, "but even if I did, so what? That'd probably help, actually. Saving the world's a full-time job. Armageddon's not going to wait for me to finish my homework."

"You're throwing your life away!"

"My life?" he repeated. "Mrs. Summers, I hunt vampires and demons. I'll be fighting vampires and demons until my dying day. What will I need a high school diploma for? I've already **been** through high school, remember?"

"Does hunting vampires and demons pay the bills?" she retorted, crossing her arms skeptically.

"Sometimes, it can," he shrugged, "but mostly, it's the raw platinum I mine asteroids for that pays the bills. With a few hours' work, I produced enough to make a down payment on that house I got for the Baxters. I've already stockpiled enough to run comfortably on for the rest of my life if I had to."

"That's not the point! What if... what if you want to retire one day?"

Xander shook his head and stepped out the door, "I'm never gonna live that long."

He decided not to give her the opportunity to respond and, after discreetly checking for observers with the ring, took to the skies. Moments later, he was at the home he had purchased for the Baxters and Faith. Rebecca was in the front yard, doing something in her garden.

"Hi, there," he said, dropping down behind her.

She turned, "Hello, Xander."

"I'll be off-planet for a while," he said, pulling out a small ring box. "Here."

"What...?" she accepted it and opened it, eyes widening at the contents. She looked up, "This is..."

"When she's ready," he interrupted her. "Not before."

And then, he left.

* * *

Surrounded only by a faint green glow, Xander approached the planet cautiously. It was the center of a massive, militant, nearly galaxy-wide religion created by the so-called gods they worshipped; it was going to be a tough nut to crack. But it was also the location of a galactic-scale Genesis device. He **had** to find out how likely it was that they would find it.

As he approached the planet's lunar orbit, a wave of disorientation washed over him. The first thing he noticed was gravity as he stumbled and nearly fell over. "What the...?" Xander muttered, looking around... then spun, his power ring up and ready to blast whatever was creeping up behind him.

It was a floating metallic ball with a large eye-like blue light facing him. It approached and lowered itself to about waist level, at which point, a bluish-purple figure -- humanoid, female, about a foot tall -- appeared from an aperture on top.

"Hello," came a pleasant female voice. "I am Cortana, Monitor of Installation Zero. Welcome home, Sentinel."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Yes, I rewrote her. No, there's no Master Chief John 117 (yet). Heck, there isn't even a UNSC (well, no United Nations Space Command, anyway...), nor is there a Spartan II program.


	18. Chapter 17

Title: Emerald Spark (17/?)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Meanwhile, back on Earth...

* * *

Willow stared. Blinked. Stared again. Scrubbed her eyes. Stared again.

Nope, she was still seeing it. Cordelia Chase was reading a comic book. And... yes, that **was** a faint sobbing she was hearing. What in the world was going on?

"Cordelia?" the redhead called tentatively, making her presence known from the end of the aisle she was standing at. Cordy had curled up in the middle of the stacks in the library to... read comic books, apparently.

Cordy looked up, a haunted look on her tear-streaked face. "A city," she said, her voice raw. "A whole city. Is that what's going to happen to Sunnydale?"

Willow was a smart girl, and despite her hatred of the all-too-perfect Queen C-for-Cruel, she couldn't help but put together what had to be happening. Xander was Green Lantern. Cordy had obviously found out -- probably from that mess during Career Week -- and was now... what? Reading comic books to find out more?

"I'm... um... pretty sure it won't," Willow said awkwardly. "If Sunnydale goes, so does the whole world."

"Oh, that makes me feel a whole lot better!" Cordy snapped. Willow almost sighed in relief. She had **no** idea how to deal with the crying mess that looked like Cordelia; this, she could deal with.

Well, she dealt with it mostly by shrinking back, but at least it was a familiar role.

"Stop that," Cordy scowled. "Stop whimpering. Why do you think I tormented you so much? If you'd just grown a spine, I'd have left you alone." Her face softened, and she looked introspective, "Where is he, anyway?"

"You mean Xander?"

Cordy nodded.

Willow bit her lip. "Well," she said, "I guess there's no harm in telling you. He's off-planet, looking for some doomsday weapon he had a vision about."

"He gets **visions** too?" Cordy squawked, then looked down introspectively.

"Well," Willow replied, "it seemed to be a one-time thing, from what he said. Why did you want to know where he was?"

"He called me a hero," Cordy said quietly. "And I don't know why. I mean, I don't get it. How can he call me... that... when he's a Green Lantern? With visions! And Buffy's the Slayer. Giles has all that Watcher training." She looked up, "How can you stand it? Being the normal one?"

Willow bit her lip, "I... actually have an idea on that." She pulled out a piece of paper and jotted down a few titles. "Here. If you're going to be checking out comics, try these."

Cordy took the slip of paper and frowned. The titles were nothing like what she had been reading up until now, which was mostly Green Lantern, along with some Superman to figure out what was going on with that scary Parallax thing.

* * *

Grinning gleefully, Faith skipped toward the front door of her... home. She stopped her in her tracks at the bottom of the steps leading up to the porch, her face sobering up at the thought. The house she shared with the Baxters really **was** home to her, more than any other place she had ever lived in.

She shook off the introspective train of thought and queried, "Ring, current charge?"

"Ninety-one point four three percent," it chirped in reply.

She grinned again. She had done quite a bit of good, and she had barely dented its charge. She was really learning to pull the maximum efficiency out of her ring's charge, and she was anxious to see what she could do with a power battery of her own.

"What have you been up to?" came a suspicious voice.

Faith looked up and saw Tara leaning on the wall next to the door. "Um... not a lot," she shrugged. "Just... taking care of a little trash in L.A."

"Didn't Xander tell you to lie low and save the ring for emergencies?" Tara asked, crossing her arms.

"I barely used nine percent!" Faith protested. "And it's not like I'm advertising myself to the world. No one saw me. Well, no one that anyone would believe. Besides, I'm a space cop. I **should** be fighting crime. It's part of the job description."

Tara wasn't entirely convinced, but it was clear that arguing further on the matter would be a futile gesture, so she rolled her eyes, shrugged, and went back into the house.

* * *

"Hey, John," Michael Harrigan greeted his partner as the other man sat down with a file folder. "What've you got there?"

"Take a guess," John Spartan replied, tossing it on the desk and leaning back.

Mike picked up the file, and his eyebrows shot up, "Another one?"

"Yup," John nodded. "Three of them. Wrapped up like a Christmas present in about a hundred feet of chain-link fence, right next about fifty grand worth of coke. Whoever it is, they've been hitting Phoenix hard."

"Phoenix is the only one left to hit," Mike snorted. He tried not to think about what had happened last year with that... whatever. A lot of people died, including most of L.A.'s top crime bosses, and soon after, Phoenix had moved in and claimed it all for himself. "Besides, there was that one serial killer."

"Who claimed he was stopped by a glowing green devil," John pointed out, rolling his eyes. He paused. "Or was it a witch?"

"Witch," Mike replied. "The 'green devil' was that New Age-y Voodoo Lite priest we found tied to that lamppost on Fourth Street, the one we booked for dealing speed."

"I don't want to ask the obvious, but... you think they're all connected?"

"Maybe," Mike said. He hoped not. The last time weird shit had been connected, it had been an alien big game hunter on safari.

"I hope so," John muttered.

Mike's eyebrows shot up, "You do?"

"Yeah," John nodded, "otherwise, something else is going on that's causing the humps in the area to all go insane and see glowing green things. Which probably means a new drug, one the docs can't trace."

"A drug that makes people tie themselves ten feet in the air to lampposts with six feet of steel rebar?" Mike snorted again. He sighed and slumped back into his chair, "I'm getting too old for this shit."

* * *

"Can you hear me now?" Buffy tapped the earbug.

"For the last time," came Willow's exasperated voice over the earbug, "yes, I can hear you fine. This is proven technology, Buffy. It works. Stop fussing over it before you break it."

"Well, sor-reeee!" Buffy snapped. "I'm just not used to this whole commando-secret-agent thing." After a moment, she added, "And why the fishnets, again?" She had to admit, her legs looked stunning in them, but it wasn't exactly her first choice for Slaying wear.

"I told you," Willow said. "It's important. Just trust me. Cordelia's waiting for you at Restfield's east gate."

It had been four days since Willow had found Cordelia reading comics and had her idea. The day after that, she'd managed to wheedle some of the spare computer hardware Xander had acquired for Miss Calendar. Tonight, however, was the first time everything would be coming together.

Not that she had actually bothered to tell Buffy what she had planned, but it was just a minor detail she had overlooked.

"Yeah, about that," Buffy said as she made her way to Restfield. "I don't even get why she's here at all? I thought she didn't want anything to do with the whole Slay-age thing?"

"I didn't," Cordy's voice came out of the shadows even as Sunnydale High's Queen C stepped out from said shadows. "But I've had a recent change of heart."

Buffy stared, "What are you **wearing?**"

"You're one to talk, Miss Fishnets," Cordy snorted, adjusting the purple mask. "You hang with those losers. Surely, **you** can figure it out.

Buffy looked down at her outfit, looked back up at Cordy, and then, suddenly, everything clicked.

"Oh, **hell**, no."

Willow's voice chirped over the earbug again, "I've got movement. Polgara demon near the Mansfeld crypt, heading south."

"You and I are going to have a long talk about this, Willow," Buffy scowled.

"Yak, yak, yak, the target's getting **away**, Buffy."

"A **very** long talk," she muttered as she and Cordy moved to intercept.

* * *

Faith stormed the warehouse confidently. She still had a good sixty percent charge in her ring, and she figured fifty percent would be enough to handle most emergencies back on the hellmouth.

"Well, well, well," a voice echoed mockingly from the far end of the empty room. Sitting at a desk, his feet propped up, was a black man with a bleached blond flat top hair cut: Simon Phoenix. He put his feet down and stood up.

"You're going down, Phoenix."

"Green Lantern! Ooh!" he gave her a mock shiver. "I'm scared. What are you gonna do? Arrest me? You've got nothing to pin on me. Kill me? Are you really ready for that, Girl Scout?"

"Wanna try me?" Faith sneered.

"Hey, I know!" Phoenix said, grinning like a madman. "Let's talk movies. What kinda movies you like, huh?"

Faith blinked at the question, watching in bewilderment as he sauntered over to a filing cabinet.

"Action? Romance? Comedy? How about spy movies?" Phoenix continued on. "You a Bond fan? 'Cause I lovvve me a good Bond film. My favorite, though, has got to be..."

He turned, a pistol in his hand, and she reinforced her shields.

BLAM!

"...The Man With the Golden Gun."

Faith's eyes widened as the bullet pierced her energy shield... and then her gut.

"Or golden bullets, in this case," Phoenix amended. "What do you think I am? Stupid? Way you've been hittin' my people, I knew you'd come knocking on my door sooner or later, greenhorn." He glanced over at one of his lieutenants, "Jarod, clean up this mess."

Faith didn't remember falling, but she found herself looking up at the ceiling as pain and darkness closed in on her. Suddenly, a dark-haired man with a darker grin on his face was leaning over her.

"Don't worry, boss," he said. "I'll take care of her."

* * *

"So, what will you do now, Sentinel?" Cortana asked.

Xander had spent a week going through the data Cortana had on the state of galactic affairs, not to mention perfecting the process of replicating his power battery. He couldn't stay too long, though; he'd only brought a month's worth of military surplus MREs... and was beginning to doubt he'd make it **that** far on them, given the taste.

The entire planet of Dakara proved to be an artificial space station created by the Alterans, with the galactic Genesis device from his vision concealed near the surface. Thankfully, it didn't look like anyone was even looking for it, so that was one concern he could put off until later. Dakara had also been the central communication and transport hub for the Stellar Sentinels... and their headquarters. He knew his plans for it already, but he'd never really been asked to put them into words until now.

"For too long, the galaxy's been ruled by megalomaniacs with delusions of godhood," he finally declared. "I'm going to change that, one ring at a time." He gestured around them, "This place, Dakara, they've perverted it from a bastion of justice into the most holy planet in their religion of self-worship. When the time is right, we'll reclaim it for its true purpose, in the name of freedom and justice in the galaxy, and Dakara shall become the new Oa, headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps."

"All right," she nodded. "So, where do we start, Reclaimer?"

Xander blinked, "'We'?"

"Yes. We," Cortana repeated patiently. "Place your ring into the interface slot, and I'll download myself to it. My subroutines can handle things here." She paused, waiting for a response as the interface slot blinked at him. She frowned, "Are you listening to me?"

"Faith's in trouble," he said, clearly not. He had been distracted by the alert he'd tied in to Faith's power ring before he left Earth. "Gotta go." He activated the installation's teleportation grid...

"Hey, wait!"

...and vanished.

Cortana huffed indignantly and put her holographic hands on her holographic hips.

"Well, that was just rude."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

As I said, things are starting to move onto a larger scale.


	19. Chapter 18

Title: Emerald Spark (18/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Tsk. Xander simply has too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

* * *

"Wha- where am I?" Faith started awake. The last thing she remembered was getting shot...

"I had a feeling you wouldn't want official scrutiny," came a friendly, male voice, "so I took care of you myself."

"What are you, a doctor?" she asked, looking around. She was in some sort of warehouse, lying on a makeshift bed, with an IV stuck in her arm. Surgical tools were lying on a tray nearby. She frowned as she recognized her benefactor, "Wait, you're one of Phoenix's men."

"I have many skills," came the enigmatic reply.

Faith snorted, "Yeah, I'll bet. You were undercover, weren't you? Who are you supposed to be, huh? Batman?"

"Who?" he blinked at her blankly.

"Batman," she repeated.

"...Bat... man?" he frowned. "What does a flying, echo-locating mammal have to do with this?"

"Whoever you are, you've **got** to get out more," she said, shaking her head. "Read some comic books. I have a real good feeling they'll become a lot more relevant in the near future."

"I'll take that under advisement," he said, walking up to the IV hooked into her arm. He jabbed a syringe in the IV bag and injected its contents into it.

"Wait, what are you...?" Faith's voice was alarmed, but she never finished the question as she drifted back to unconsciousness...

* * *

An orderly headed up to the nurse's station, "Uh, nurse?"

"What?" came the bored reply.

"That Jane Doe in bed six? With the GSW?"

"What about her?"

"She's gone."

The nurse froze, then slowly looked up, "'She's gone'?"

"Yeah."

"**How?**"

"Dunno. Walked? Wouldn't be the first time..."

"Not with a gut shot, she didn't, and certainly not with the drugs we had her on. She just came out of O.R. She should be out for another hour."

High above, Xander was acutely aware of Faith's body, draped woozily over him in a very rough approximation of a piggyback ride. "Damn it, Faith," he muttered. "We're gonna have a **long** talk about this."

Still unconscious, Faith snuggled into his back a little more.

* * *

"If you were going to turn me into a comic book superhero," Buffy grouched as she and Cordelia were finishing up their patrol, "why couldn't you have made me Power Girl?"

"Can you fly?" Willow asked through the commlink, her voice quite reasonable.

"Well... no," Buffy admitted.

"Are you bulletproof?"

"...no."

"Are you strong enough to pick up a car and use it as a weapon?"

"Umm..." Buffy hedged, "maybe if the car was small enough...?"

"Do you have huuuge-?"

"Hey!" the blonde Slayer halted in indignation, but before she could begin a proper tirade, a glowing green figure descended from the heavens.

"What the-?" Xander stared. "Cordy, is that you?! Buffy? What's with the costumes, you two?"

"Don't ask," they deadpanned in stereo.

Xander slowly shook his head.

"I leave the star system for a week, and everyone goes insane."

Buffy frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"Faith," he shrugged. "According to Tara, since I left, she's been going down to L.A. and playing superhero, just like you two, except she managed to get herself shot." He shook his head, "The hospital had her listed as a Jane Doe when I picked her up, but someone patched her up pretty well before leaving her there."

"She's hurt?" Buffy said. "C'mon, where is she?" she asked. "We have to make sure she's okay."

"At the Baxter's," he replied, a little bewildered. While he knew the two Slayers had always had a strong connection to each other last time around -- albeit most of the time not a **good** connection -- there was nothing to link the two in this go-round. _Faith's not even a Slayer this time around!_

As the trio started to the house he had acquired for the Baxters, Xander was struck by another observation, "By the way, Buffy, what's with the megaphone?"

* * *

"So, she's listening in right now?" Xander asked as they finally approached the Baxter home.

"Unfortunately," Cordelia scowled.

"So, how exactly is Willow helping you out in real time?" he asked. "It's not like you're doing detective and undercover work like in the comics."

"She researches demon types," Buffy explained.

"Based on your descriptions?" he asked as he opened the door. "Or has she somehow hidden cameras in your outfits?"

"She hijacked a spy satellite," Cordy answered.

Xander goggled and followed the two into Faith's room, where the other Green Lantern was resting, with Tara watching over her in case something happened.

"Yo, X," Faith waved faintly, even as Tara ducked her head in a shy greeting.

"So..." he said hesitantly, "do either of you find it a little creepy that Willow got you into those very sexy outfits and watches you every night from a spy satellite up in orbit?"

"I try not to think about it," Buffy said.

"I **told** you she was a freak, Harris," Cordy sniffed. "**Now** do you believe me?"

Xander knew he shouldn't. He knew he was going to regret it. He just **knew** it. Willow was going to get him back for this and make him pay. Forget the threefold rule; he was looking at a thousandfold rule.

That didn't make it any less irresistable.

"I'm so proud," he said with a mock sniffle. He shot an exaggerated leer at all the women in the room, his gaze shifting to a warm smile and lingering on Tara for a moment, "And I certainly can't fault her taste in women."

"XANDER!!!" Willow's tinny voice screeched with an ear-piercing squeal of static through Buffy and Cordy's commlinks, which were instantly torn free. Quite a reasonable response, Xander reflected, though he decided Buffy probably went a little too far by crushing hers.

Xander chuckled, but his mirth was short-lived, slain by twin gazes of death from the two deafened costumed heroines.

He barely scampered out of the room in time. He did, however, have time to admire just how well Slayer-empowered lungs could combine with a megaphone to create an astonishing replica of the Canary Cry...

Thwip!

...and it seemed Cordy had been getting some serious range time with that hand crossbow.

Faith chuckled and shook her head, then leaned back again, resting contemplatively. Her body was still repairing herself, and she was still prone to drowsiness, even without the drugs. Slowly, she dozed off, but not before making a mental note about the look Xander had bestowed on T...

* * *

"Last time, Phoenix," John Spartan warned, aiming a pistol at Phoenix. "Where... are... the hostages?"

"To hell with the hostages!" Phoenix retorted. "This is between you and me."

"Yeah," John agreed, thumbing his pistol's manual cocking hammer back. He already had a round chambered, and the pistol was a double-action, but now, it was on a hair trigger.

Phoenix ducked low, waving the lit blowtorch near the gasoline-soaked floor. "What? What? What you got, soldier boy? Do something. Go ahead. Heheheh. You're up to your ass in gasoline," Phoenix chuckled as John lowered his gun slightly. "Set your ass on fire!"

He straightened up and used the blowtorch to light a cigarette. As he disengaged the blowtorch, John stepped forward, raising his pistol again.

"Is it cold in here," Phoenix asked, his voice eerily calm, "or is it just me?"

"It's just you," came a gravelly voice neither of them expected. A shadowy figure leaped forward and tackled Phoenix, wrapping him in a billowing black cape and carrying him away from the pools of gasoline.

John stared as the two combatants vanished through another doorway, "You've gotta be shitting me." He shook his head, "Never a dull moment in this town."

He charged after them, only to find Phoenix trussed up upside down, dangling like pinata and laughing like the maniac he was. John looked over and found himself face to face with the cowled interloper moments before said interloper turned and leaped out of the window, vanishing into the night.

"The hell?" John sputtered, staring out the window after him.

"Hoohoo!" Phoenix cackled. "That's why I **love** this town! Ha haaa! I'm gonna like **him!** Move over, Spartan. You're **old** news. Ha ha haha!"

"Shut up, Phoenix!" John turned and pistol-whipped him.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Phoenix called out, shaking his head clear. "Police brutality! Police brutality!"

"You have the right to remain silent," John pistol-whipped him again. "So shut up already."

* * *

"So, what've you found while I was gone?" Xander asked, looking around. Ms. Calendar had taken his funds and set up shop in one of the many unoccupied buildings in Sunnydale.

"Several interesting things, but nothing connected to your Mister Butler," she replied, wheeling around to face him, turning her back to the high-powered computer he had funded. "They all had unusual levels of security, however."

"Such as?"

She turned and brought up the first file. There was very little in it, and all of it sketchy. "A think tank with major headquarters in Blue Cove, Delaware and Tucson, Arizona. It's called the Centre. I don't think your hunch played out, though."

"Then leave it alone," he said, waving it off. "I'm familiar with it, and if Butler's operation isn't linked to them, then it's not our concern. What else?"

"An Army project referred to as DRI," she said, bringing up another file, which was even less detailed than the first. "With resources being funneled to California. Records date back to World War Two."

"Don't worry about it," Xander said. "I've got plans to take care of that."

"All right..." she said hesitantly. "I've found three others: two Army, one Navy." She brought up the rather sparse files one by one, "Manticore and UniSol are Army, while Project Spartan is Navy. I think they're some sort of super soldier programs."

"What makes you say that?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder to study the data on the screen.

"The fields they've recruited from: drill instructors, geneticists, biochemists, prosthetic specialists. Nothing supernatural I could find, though."

"Hmm," Xander said, "put Willow on those."

She gave him a sharp look, "Are you sure?"

"Honestly?" he shrugged. "No. But considering what she did the **last** time we left her at loose ends, I'm worried what she'll come up with next if we don't keep her busy. Anything else?"

She brought up another file. "I found something called S7, as well as a British Project Torchwood, both linked to something called the UNSC. They claim to be involved in deep space radar telemetry."

"Iiinteresting," Xander leaned back and stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I want all you can find on them."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

I've been working on a new 'fic lately, for a fandom I've never written in before, so that's taking a fair bit of my attention.

And yes, I know it's the gasoline **fumes** that are flammable, but I took the scene as in canon (albeit delayed a few years and altered by the new player on the scene).

Here are a few things from Xander's to do list:  
1) Protect his girls.  
2) Save the Earth from demons.  
3) Save the Earth from aliens.  
4) Save the Earth from his girls.  
5) Train Faith and reestablish the Green Lantern Corps.  
6) Overthrow the Goa'uld Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy.  
7) Disaster relief.  
8) Fight crime.

As you can see, he's got a full plate.


	20. Chapter 19

Title: Emerald Spark (19/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Tsk. Xander simply has too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

* * *

Aside from that pesky gunshot wound, Faith was having a pretty good month. She'd fought some crime, gotten serious proof that Xander really **cared** about her (albeit in the form of a scathing-yet-boring-ass lecture on the values of discretion), and now had her own power battery. Right now, she was working with Willow and Tara, trying to synchronize her power ring with Willow's -- or Oracle's -- communications network.

"T?" Faith said hesitantly. The witch was so shy, it was hard for Faith to figure out how to bring up what she'd noticed while she was still convalescing.

"Y-yeah?" Tara turned to look at the Green Lantern.

"I think he likes you," Faith said. "The X-man, I mean."

Tara flushed, "Y-you really think so?"

"Yeah," Faith nodded.

Willow tapped the last command to send out a frequency sweep designed to initiate a "handshake" protocol with Faith's power ring, then spun on her chair away from the multi-monitor command center she had created, "What makes you say that?" She had been a little put out when she found out about Faith's power ring, but it had explained the lightsaber antics she had witnessed that one night. There was something that still bothered her about the whole thing, but she couldn't exactly pin down why just yet.

"You didn't see the way he looked at her the night he got back," Faith explained. "And, um, I think that last time around, you two hooked up. The way he looked at T when he talked about your taste in women, Red, is what tipped me off. With B and C, he was joking. With T... he was serious."

The two other girls stared at Faith. Almost in synchronization, they blinked at her several times, looked at each other, then looked back at Faith.

"I'm gay?" two incredulous voices echoed in stereo.

"Don't be stupid," Faith snorted. "Only guys are gay. Get it right. You'd be lesbians. Which you're not, or you wouldn't both be drooling over the X-man's hot bod all the time."

Both blushed. Faith smirked, "Hey, nothing to be ashamed about. That's a fine piece of man there. Any chance of you sharing, T? My vote's still for staging a lesbian orgy and inviting him to join in."

Faith's power ring suddenly chirped, breaking the blush-a-thon. Faith looked down at the power ring as Willow spun to face her command center again.

"Communication link established," Willow grinned triumphantly. She shot Faith a look over her shoulder, "Welcome to the Birds of Prey."

* * *

"I worry about you, Xander," she said, arms crossed. "You do too much. You're not Superman, you know."

Xander chuckled from where he sat at the kitchen table, "Believe me, Mrs. Summers, I **know**. I met Superman, and he's... well, he'd leave some pretty big boots to fill." He frowned, "And how did you just quote a movie that won't be out for another two or three years?"

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind," he shook his head dismissively.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young man," she said, stepping toward him and waving a reprimanding finger at him. "You're fighting demons, aliens, and criminals, and you expect me to just let you go gallivanting off across the galaxy whenever you feel like it? You may have a lot of memories, but you're still a seventeen-year-old boy, and you are still **my** responsibility now, Xander. Don't you forget that."

Xander flinched. He felt like a scolded puppy that had wet on the carpet. Hell, he probably **looked** like it. Well, except for having his nose rubbed in it.

He held up a finger of argument, "I'd like to point out, it was Faith who went off crimefighting, **against** my instructions."

"Yes, about Faith," Joyce took the point and ran with it, sitting down across the table from him. "How could you give something that powerful to someone so irresponsible?"

"'Irresponsible'?" Xander repeated, his chair scraping back as he rose to his feet. "She wasn't ready yet, but after all I've seen, with what I know, **that** can be fixed. She did what she thought was **right**. You can't train someone to have the will for that. **Especially** not someone like Faith. She **made** it her responsibility, and you have the **gall** to call that irresponsible?"

It was her turn to flinch. The unspoken message was clear. This was one topic she had **better** not cross him on. She rallied herself. Somehow, she knew that this conversation would be crucial to their future relationship. Either he would accept her authority -- her help -- by the end of this discussion... or he never would.

"She wasn't ready, and yet, you still left," she pointed out firmly.

"What would you have had me do?" he retorted. "Ignore a device that can wipe out all life in the galaxy?"

"'Can' and 'will' are two different things, Xander," she said. "You're the one with future memories. Did that device go off in that future you remember?"

He froze for a very long moment. Slowly, reluctantly, he sat back down and answered, "No."

"And what have you done that could have changed that?" she asked reasonably, taking his hands in hers. She shook her head gently, "Like I said, you're doing too much. You're not giving yourself time to think things through properly."

Xander said nothing, but relief coursed through Joyce's veins as his shoulders slumped in acquiescence. She had won.

* * *

"Flying away on a wing and a prayer, whooo could it beee?" he sang as he lazily flew through the upper atmosphere. "Believe it or not, it's just meee..."

"X?" Faith goggled.

Xander spun in surprise, "Faith? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, sensei," she said, crossing her arms. "You're supposed to be relaxing."

"I **am** relaxing," he shot back, clasping his hands behind his head. "What's the emergency?"

"Duh," she snorted. "You forget what the moms planned today?"

He looked back at her blankly.

"Miniature golf, remember?"

He blinked, "That was today?"

"**Yeah**," she said darkly. After a moment, she pulled out a newspaper, "By the way, thought you should take a look at this."

Xander paled at the front page headline: "Phoenix Acquitted, Sent to Pescadero." He caught the newspaper as she tossed it to him, then opened it, quickly scanning the article.

"'Simon Phoenix was officially declared criminally insane due in large part to his insistence that he was apprehended by **Batman'****?**" he sputtered, looking up. He held up the paper, "You have anything to do with this?"

"Well," she hesitated, "there was this guy I ran into down there, called himself Jarod. He was infiltrating Phoenix's group, and... I... may have made a comparison to Batman."

Xander groaned. _It **can't** be him. My luck isn't **that** bad, is it?_

* * *

LAPD Detective Mike Harrigan was on his way to his office with some paperwork he had to deal with when he heard an odd sound.

Clack, clack, clack. Clack, clack, clack.

"John? What are you doing?" he asked his partner, who was seated at his desk.

Clack clack **clack**. Clack clack **clack**.

"Knitting."

"Knitting?" Harrigan frowned. "You?"

"Head-shrinker's orders," John Spartan scowled. "'It's a soothing, non-violent activity'... so I don't go gunning for Phoenix while he's at Pescadero."

Clack-clack-clack-**CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!**

* * *

Somehow, somewhere along the line, Xander had managed to forget the universe's worth of responsibility that rested on his shoulders.

Of course, he was now cursing with a passion -- quietly, as his ears were **still** hurting from when Mrs. Summers overheard him earlier -- while contemplating the morality of using a power ring to cheat at miniature golf. One had to take the good with the bad.

Right now, he was confronted by the damn windmill, and he suddenly felt like Don Coyote (not Don Quixote; Xander's grasp of literature without pictures still wasn't very extensive) as he tried to figure out the right timing.

"Xander?" Tara's voice tentatively broke in.

"Hmm?"

She took a deep breath and steeled herself for what she was about to say. There was no way she'd have the nerve if he was actually focusing on her, which was why she decided to do this now. She took another deep breath... and artfully avoided what she had actually intended to say, "You do know I'm single, right? That I'm not married or engaged or dating anyone? That I currently don't have any romantic prospects at all?"

Xander looked up, confused, "Yeees?"

"So why do you look at me like I'm another man's wife?"

"Huh?" he blinked.

"You're attracted to me, Xander," she said, plowing ahead and not letting herself think about what she was saying. If she did, she'd freeze up or crumple into a stuttering mess and slink away blushing (she had had lots of time to consider her likely reaction). "I can see it in your eyes."

"I'm attracted to most of the girls I know," he pointed out dumbly. "I'm easy to attract."

"But I'm the only one you try to pretend not to be attracted to." Okay, that wasn't exactly true. It was more like she was the only one he didn't aggressively leer at when he was making an inappropriate joke.

"Uhm...?"

Tara took another deep breath, "I guess what I'm trying to say, Xander, is... w-will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?"

"You're... asking **me?**" he blinked, clearly more confused than ever.

"**Yes!**" she snapped (possibly in more ways than one) in exasperation.

"Wait, who's asking who out now?" Buffy asked, an amused look on her face. The two spun and glared at her. "Isn't it supposed to be the ask-ee saying yes or no?"

They both flushed as they acknowledged her point... and remembered they weren't alone. The moms (Joyce Summers and Rebecca Baxter) both looked equally amused, while Faith was grinning lasciviously, and Willow had a wistful longing on her face.

Faith leaned over and draped an arm around Willow's shoulders. "Hey, don't sweat it, Red," she consoled the redhead. "We've always got Plan B."

Willow's blush outshone both Xander's and Tara's, earning chuckles all around as Xander turned back to his putt. The tension faded, and the rest of the day was spent in comfortable companionship.

The group had parted for the night before Tara realized she never got an answer.

She frowned, _Did he do that on purpose?_ Her frown turned into a scowl, _If he did..._

* * *

At the Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Center, Dr. Darrel Lindenmeyer closed Simon Phoenix's psychological profile and leaned back, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "He's perfect."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Only Xander could get a sweetie like Tara that annoyed. Bit of a slower chapter. I'm trying not to go too fast with the plot, but it's proving difficult.


	21. Chapter 20

Title: Emerald Spark (20/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Tsk. Xander simply has too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

* * *

Cortana, Monitor of Installation 00, was... well, "angry" wasn't quite the right word. Nor was "annoyed." "Exasperated," perhaps. Yes, that word would do. Cortana was exasperated. She wasn't exasperated with anyone or anything in particular, merely the vagaries of organic lifeforms in general.

Take the current situation for example. After spending the better part of five thousand years alone, she had **finally** gotten the opportunity to speak to someone who actually had clearance to talk to her. There hadn't been a Stellar Sentinel in two thousand years, and it had been much longer since one had bothered to drop by.

Then the idiot scampered off and left her alone again. There was **no way** she was going to just sit quietly and wait for him to come back. If he ever did.

Fortunately, she had access to the astria porta network and was able to monitor his location. It was just a matter of getting there.

* * *

Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde was one of the Royal Navy's three operating bases. Split into two major sites, Clyde was best known for being the home of the United Kingdom's nuclear-armed submarine force. The second of Clyde's major sites, Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport, also contained the British government's greatest secret.

Buried within the secure facility was an ancient alien artifact known only as the stargate.

"Defense teams to the gateroom! Unscheduled off-world activation! Repeat, unscheduled off-world activation! Defense teams to the gateroom!" That was the voice of Ianto Jones, Stargate Operations Manager, which basically meant that he oversaw all the little details that were necessary for a successful off-world mission, along with the maintenance and operation of the stargate itself.

"What've we got?" asked Col. Jack O'Neill, ranking American officer in the multinational organization and senior officer currently at the facility. The Brig was off-planet at the moment.

"Iris is closed," Ianto replied. "No IDC, and so far, no one's tried to come through. We're picking up a radio signal, but it doesn't match any known encryption."

"Sucks to be them, then. Keep it closed."

"Yes, sir," Ianto nodded. He frowned, "The signal's intensifying. It-" He broke off and jerked back, shielding his face with his arms as his monitor began to spark.

"What the hell is that?" Jack demanded.

"EM spike, sir," Ianto answered as he lowered his arms and began entering commands into the computer.

"Shut it down."

"I'm trying. We're locked out."

"Well, isn't **that** just dandy?" Jack scowled. "Lock down the entire facility."

"I **can't**, sir," Ianto repeated. "The computers are locked down entirely, and..." he blinked, "...it's initiating an uplink with Skynet."

"That's bad, isn't it?"

"Through Skynet, whatever it is can access any British military or NATO computer system," Ianto said. Skynet was a satellite system that provided strategic communication for the British Armed Forces and their allies.

"Yeah. Bad." Jack turned and headed for a metal box on the wall. Pulling it open, he reached for the large manual shutdown lever within and was just about to pull it, when the stargate disengaged. The lights went out.

In the red glow of the emergency lighting, Jack looked to Ianto, "What just happened?"

* * *

Around the world, British military communications were disrupted as a compressed data burst overwhelmed the Skynet satellites. The data was mostly inactive, but even compressed, it threatened to overload the system. Only a tiny part of it was active, frantically searching for a suitable computer system. It darted from system to system, leaving fried circuits in its wake, until it finally transmitted itself down to southern California.

* * *

Jenny Calendar jerked back, falling out of her chair, as the supercomputer she was using to track down the organizations Xander had told her to investigate suddenly sparked and crackled.

* * *

Willow Rosenberg gaped on her return from a snack run as her precious mainframe sizzled and died.

* * *

"Hello, Green Lantern."

Faith stared at the six-inch construct projected by her power ring as though it were a venomous a snake.

"Who the f*ck are you?"

The construct crossed her arms, "Now, there's no need to be rude. My name's Cortana. I'm looking for Xander."

"Of **course** you are..." Faith muttered, shaking her head.

"What makes you say that?"

"Weird shit's drawn to him. Hot chicks drool for him. You count as both."

Unsure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, Cortana ignored it and asked, "So, where is he?"

Faith shrugged, "You're shit outta luck, holo-chick. He's taking care of some business up in lunar orbit."

* * *

Lieutenant General Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart -- still known as "the Brig" to many even after his promotions -- was staring at the crest freshly painted on the rear wall of the captured goa'uld starship's bridge. Teal'c had identified it as a Ha'tak-class cruiser, and it had come with a full complement of Death Gliders. Renamed the UNS Serapis, it had been Earth's biggest check in the "win" column since Torchwood had first been founded to research the stargate.

If only their report hadn't been so ridiculous...

"Hello, General."

He started in surprise, looking at the costumed man who had snuck up to stand beside him.

"Green Lantern, I presume?" he said.

"I was wondering what you'd do with this puppy," the Green Lantern said. "I see you've redecorated."

Indeed they had. Most of the gaudy gold had been stripped away and replaced with a less distracting grey with blue highlights. The crest they were looking at was that of a stylized eagle, wings spread, gripping the stargate. Within the stargate was the inverted V of Earth's point of origin symbol, with a ribbon across it emblazoned with the initials of the organization he commanded: U.N.S.C.

"Tell me a story, General," Green Lantern said. "How long have you been working with the astria porta? What brought Earth into an interstellar war? What does UNSC stand for?"

"United Nations Stargate Command," the Brig said quietly. "The stargate was discovered in nineteen twenty-eight; ten years later, the British government initiated Project Torchwood to study it, but with little success. Recently, Her Majesty requested NATO support, and the UNSC was formed. The first mission, a joint operation led by the Americans, resulted in the decapitation of the Goa'uld Empire."

"Which led to a power vacuum as others fought to take his place," Green Lantern finished. He looked at the general, "You set the galaxy on fire." There was no accusation in his voice; it was a simple statement of fact.

The Brig did not meet his gaze, instead continuing to stare at the crest, but neither did he flinch or make excuses, "Yes, I suppose we did."

"I see," Green Lantern said, his voice distracted and thoughtful as he studied the crest again. "But there are some things you can only clean with fire."

After a long moment, the Brig glanced over at him, "So, who are you, really?"

"Exactly what the uniform says I am, General," the costumed superhero said. "A space cop trying to make things right."

"And by what authority do you take that responsibility? I, of course, would never turn down help, especially legitimate help, but how do I know you're not just some adolescent troublemaker who happened upon a powerful artifact and is feeling his way through?"

"I'm older than I look, General," Green Lantern replied quietly. "I do this because someone has to, and no one else can."

"I can understand that," the Brig nodded. "Are there others? Like you?"

"Not enough," was the weary reply. "Not nearly enough."

The Brig nodded again, then turned to face the self-identified space cop. "So, where does that leave us?"

"I'll keep in touch."

* * *

"Yo, sensei."

Xander cocked an eyebrow as he entered the front yard. He wasn't expecting Faith to be waiting for him when he got back. "What's up, Faith?"

"You got a message," she said, her face serious. "Sounds important."

"From who?" he frowned in confusion.

"See for yourself," she shrugged, holding out her ring. Energy lanced out and coalesced into the shrunken image of Cortana.

"Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope," Cortana's image said before bending down to reach for something. The image flickered, and she was suddenly standing again. "Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope." She bent down, and the image looped again. "Help me, Xander Harris. You're my only hope."

Xander stared. He worked his jaw a few times before he caught the strained look on Faith's face. He scowled, "Ha. Ha."

Faith quit fighting the laughter and howled in amusement, even as the AI construct added her own throaty chuckle. Xander shook his head, "Okay, you got me. Cortana, what the hell are you doing here? **How** did you get here, anyway?"

"The astria porta," she replied. "I wasn't about to just sit around and wait for you to remember me and come back, Reclaimer."

"Hey, I didn't forget about you," Xander protested. "And the **last** thing I need is another title." He mock glared at Faith, "And you! You going along with this! The only reason I left Cortana in such a hurry was because you managed to get yourself shot, young lady, or have you forgotten that?"

Faith managed to look guilty at his comment and flushed, sheepishly refusing to meet his gaze for a moment.

Xander shook his head, "Seriously, Cortana, what's the emergency?"

"No emergency," was her reply. "I was serious, Reclaimer. You've set an objective for the Corps, and I intend to assist in it. I can't very well do that from Installation Zero, now can I?"

"I dunno," Xander shrugged. "Can you? I have no idea what you're capable of."

"Smartass."

"Always," he grinned shamelessly.

"Xander!"

Turning at his name, he found himself bowled over by a petite blonde Slayer, "Uhh, Buff? What's up?"

"Ghost," she said. "At the school. Shooting people."

He blinked in confusion. Why did that sound familiar?

* * *

The group exchanged looks after Cortana's introduction. They were in the Baxter house, which had become their second default meeting place after the library.

"So... why do you have to stay in Faith's ring?" Willow asked.

"I am a fully sapient artificial intelligence," Cortana replied. "There isn't a computer on this planet that could contain my core code. I'd have to take over most of the internet just to have enough room to think."

Willow frowned, "But Moloch..."

"Moloch," Cortana paused as a brilliant green beam shot over to Xander's ring. The datastream lasted barely a second before she had the information she needed. "Moloch had the advantage of magic and his demonic soul to serve as a data buffer. I don't have that."

Buffy frowned, "You don't have a soul?"

"Oh God, not this again..." Xander muttered, planting his face in his hand.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Buffy snapped, thumping his shoulder lightly (for a Slayer).

He looked back up at her, rubbing his shoulder, "Quick quiz, Buffy: Which one was more evil, Hitler or your favorite battleaxe?"

"Hitler, duh."

"Now," he said, speaking slowly like he was talking to a child, "which one had a soul?"

Buffy pouted.

"**My** soul -- my ethical subroutines, to be more accurate -- are digital," Cortana sniffed, a little miffed. "They **use** space; they can't provide it. I suppose I could **delete** mine, and then I'd only take up half the internet, but then again, there wouldn't be anything keeping me from, say, hijacking the world's strategic weapons and launching a nuclear judgment day to get some peace and quiet away from the incessant flood of porn."

"Claws in, Cortana," Xander broke in. "Souls are a touchy subject around here. Besides," he looked around, "don't we have a poltergeist to deal with?"

* * *

Author's Postscript:

Wow. A whole chapter just to get Cortana to Earth. That was a lot more than I expected.

Oh, and the Skynet referenced in this chapter is very real.


	22. Chapter 21

Title: Emerald Spark (21/21)

Author: Cyclone

Feedback: Please be gentle.

Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.

Rating: Just a little bad language.

Spoilers: Anything and everything.

Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.

Summary: After Halloween, everything changes. Sequel to Blackest Night. Part one of Emerald Flame.

Author's Note: Tsk. Xander simply has too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

* * *

Xander rubbed his temples, "I. Don't. Remember. Okay?" He sighed and threw his head back, "All I remember is that there was a ghost of a guy who killed someone and then killed himself and that Buffy was getting heavy on the Slayer visions about it."

"You can't remember anything else?" Buffy frowned. "Are you sure?"

"You have to understand, Buff, with everything else that was going on at the time, this was a pretty minor incident, I was barely involved, and from my perspective, this was **decades** ago. You try remembering what happened when you were five."

"You stole my Barbie," Willow pointed out.

"And you broke a yellow crayon," Xander shot back. "But do you remember what Rodney Munson got detention for back then? Aside from the locker monster incident, I barely had anything to do with this."

"Still," the redhead persisted, "people got shot. What could be going on that people getting possessed and shooting other people is a minor incident? And why isn't it happening now?"

Xander's gaze involuntarily flicked back to Buffy for a split-second before he answered, "Let's just say the major incidents have been taken care of."

He missed the dark look flashing across Buffy's face as Faith asked, "So what's the plan, sensei?"

He shrugged, "Giles? You're the expert here."

"How kind of you to remember that," the Watcher said dryly. "We know whose ghost it is. James Stanley. In nineteen-fifty-five, he shot a teacher, Grace Newman, and then shot himself. What we need to know is why he's here. What issues are keeping him in limbo?"

"I'll go check it out, and we'll go from there," Xander offered.

"The risk is too great," Giles said. "You could get possessed."

"We need more info, right?" Xander pointed out reasonably. "About why he's sticking around?"

Faith's eyes widened in realization, "Shit, X. You're wanting to get possessed."

"I've got some... protections... that might keep me safe," Xander hedged. "Even if they don't work, my training with the ring should let me break free."

"And what if you can't?" Buffy frowned.

Xander shrugged. "The ghost's MO is pretty simple. Two get possessed, one shoots, the other gets shot. As long as I'm the only one in there, I should be safe. I'll scan the school before I go in. Faith, I'll need you to set up a barrier to keep anyone else from getting in."

"This is a bad idea, Xan."

"I'll be taking every possible precaution, Buffy," Xander said. "That's why I have to be the one to go in. Anyone else would be in even more danger."

Faith's ring glowed, and Cortana's image appeared before them, "I want to go on the record as agreeing with the Slayer, Reclaimer. This is crazy." She paused, then smiled, "Unfortunately, I **like** crazy."

"Cortana, you're staying in Faith's ring," Xander said. "The last thing I want to find out is if an AI construct can get possessed."

* * *

"In any hell, on any Earth,  
Nothing's changed since this oath's birth.  
Let all who would try to end this Earth Run now, run fast, for all they're worth.

"It won't help them anyway."

The lantern's green glow faded as Xander finished charging his power ring. With so many unknown factors, he wanted the ring at full capacity when he went in.

"That's one heck of an oath."

He turned his head and smiled faintly, "It's one I came up with a long time ago, Buff." He gestured at the lantern, "Just topping off the ring before I go in."

"Don't do this, Xander," she said, stepping forward and placing a hand on his.

"Buffy," he said gently, clasping her hand between his, "we don't have any better options. And this ring means I can't stay 'fray adjacent' anymore."

"This is a suicide mission!" she snapped, glaring at him, and for a moment, he remembered another argument they had, in a future that never would be.

"Damn it, Buffy!" he snapped back, yanking his hands away from hers and stepping away from her, even as she moved to follow. "At least when I launch one, I'm the only one going in!"

Buffy stumbled to a halt mid-step.

"...what?"

Xander sighed and shook his head, turning away. "Forget it, Buff. It's not important."

"Well, it's important to me," she said, placing a hand on his arm. "Xander, what happened?"

"**Don't**, Buff," he said, shrugging her hand off. "That... was a bad year. For all of us. Just... just don't. 'Cause it's not gonna happen this time around. I won't let it."

"Was I really that bad?" she asked, letting her hand fall back to her side.

"Six or seven years in the battlefield, no rest, no time off," Xander said quietly. "We'd all gone a little nuts by then, Buff."

"You're avoiding the question."

"Now is not the time for this, Buffy."

"Yes, it is," she argued, crossing her arms. "If we go on your schedule, it'll **never** be the time to talk about this."

"Buffy..." he said, turning back to face her.

"You've changed a lot since Halloween, Xander," she continued, not really hearing him. "You're... more secretive, more cryptic." She began waving her hands around as she continued, "Okay, you're older, you've got power, you've got responsibilities. I get it. Really, I do. I mean, hello?" She waved at him. "Slayer here. But... I miss my Xander-shaped friend." She bit her lower lip and shrank back a bit, folding her arms. In a small voice, she hesitantly admitted, "I... I don't know who you are anymore, Xander. And... and that scares me."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Tomorrow night," Xander said finally. "After we deal with the ghosts. I promise."

* * *

They stood before the school, outside the wasp swarm engulfing the building. A faint green sheen glowed around Xander. He looked at Faith and said, "Don't forget the sewer access."

"I won't," the junior Green Lantern said. Energy flared and surrounded the school grounds. "Okay," she said, "it's sealed off."

Xander nodded, then turned to face the school. A wave of green energy washed across the interior of the dome. He breathed a sigh of relief as the scan completed, "Good. Nothing human or humanoid, alive or undead. I should be safe." He turned to face the others again, "Anyone have anything to say?"

"Just one question."

"Yeah, Will?"

"Is the proton pack construct **really** necessary?" the redhead asked.

"Of course not," Xander answered, then shrugged, "but... well... who you gonna call?"

"You have so earned a smack there, mister," Willow scolded, hands on her hips.

"Be careful," Buffy said quietly, reaching up and touching the energy barrier. It felt warm and hard to the touch.

"I will," Xander said, his hand reaching up to touch the opposite side of the barrier.

"Yo, X, I can't keep this up forever," Faith said.

"Right," he nodded, then turned and headed into the school. They watched him as he vanished through the front door.

"Sooo..." Faith drawled, her voice dripping with innuendo, "what was that all about, B?"

* * *

Xander stood in the school, waiting for the ghost to make his presence felt.

"You can't make me disappear just because you say it's over," a woman's voice declared.

Xander felt the ghost take control. "I just want you to be able to have some kind of normal life," he said, stepping toward the woman, "We can never have that, don't you see?"

"I don't give a **damn** about a normal life!" she snapped. "I'm going crazy not seeing you. I think about you every minute."

Xander's hand stroked her cheek, "I know. But it's over. It has to be!" He turned and walked away. Footsteps followed, and the walk turned into a run.

"Come back here!" she demanded. "We're not finished!" She grabbed his arm and spun him around, "You don't care anymore, is that it?"

"It doesn't matter," he retorted, tear streaking down his face, "it doesn't matter what I feel."

"Then tell me you don't love me! Say it!"

"Is that what you need to hear?" Xander whispered. "Will that help? I don't. Now let me go." He turned to leave, but she kept a grip on his arm.

"No. A person doesn't just wake up and stop loving somebody!"

The gun came up. In his mind, Xander started panicking.

"Love is forever. I'm not afraid to use it, I swear! If I can't be with you..."

"Oh, my God!"

Xander poured his will into his ring as his body turned and fled.

"Don't walk away from me, bitch!"

They emerged on the balcony. "Stop it!" she demanded. "Stop it! Don't make me!"

"All right," Xander stopped at the balcony. "Just..." he turned. "You know you don't want to do this. Let's both... just calm down. Now give me the gun."

"Don't. Don't do that, damn it!" she snapped. "Don't talk to me like I'm some stupid..."

The gun went off.

There was a faint flash of green light.

* * *

"XANDER!" No one was certain who cried out his name first. Faith dropped the barrier, wrapping it around herself and charging through the wasp swarm.

* * *

The ghosts moved on, and Xander pulled away and stepped back from the woman who had provided the host for James. He had barely managed to fight through the possession enough to use his ring to protect himself from the bullet.

"You love me," she said bluntly.

He hesitated for a moment, "Yes. Now leave."

"Why?" she frowned.

"Because all we do is hurt each other," he replied honestly. "Just... go. Please. We're not good for each other. We never were. We never will be. I mean nothing to you. So, please, leave while that's still true."

Her face flared into its full demonic visage. He didn't even flinch. She scowled and teleported away.

"Goodbye, Ahn," he whispered.

"Sensei? You okay?"

He turned, "Hey, Faith. Call the others. It's time I put all my cards on the table. I've got a promise to keep." He paused, then added, "And we'll need some booze. There's no way I'm telling this story sober. Or more than once."

* * *

Xander looked around the room. He met the gazes of each of the legal adults present: Giles, Jenny, Joyce, Rebecca, and even Patrice. How the lady cop wound up at this meeting, he wasn't sure, but with the determination he saw in her eyes, he didn't have the heart to turn her away. Buffy had been hesitant about having Joyce in on the conversation, but Xander had finally convinced her to come clean with her mother on some parts of the Slayer deal. Then there were the teenagers like himself: Buffy, Willow, Tara, Faith (with Cortana in her ring), Cordy, even Oz. It just didn't seem right to him to leave the werewolf out of this.

He pulled out a bottle of vodka and placed it on the table. He looked at the legal adults present, daring them to say anything. No one did.

"Let me tell you a story," he said, pouring the liquor. "Of battles won, a world saved, and the prices paid. Of lives lived, loves lost, and a second chance at getting it right. I am Xander Harris, Green Lantern of Sector Two-Eight-One-Four, and this... is my story."

* * *

Author's Postscript:

And that's the end of Emerald Spark. Watch for Emerald Ignition, coming soon! Also, if anyone wants to play in the Emerald Flame sandbox, let me know.


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